For many French people, Friday night will be the last with open bars and restaurants for quite some time due to the corona pandemic.
Belgium is also closing its watering holes, while Germany is tightening the rules.
The French government is reintroducing the nighttime curfew in large parts of the country after the spread of the infection increased again.
After a summer of reduced transmission, a second wave of COVID-19 appears to have rolled in, with more and more countries now imposing stricter restrictions as a result. The World Health Organization (WHO) calls the current situation in Europe ”very worrying.”.
Starting at midnight on Saturday, a curfew will be in place between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m. in the capital Paris and eight other cities. In total, more than 20 million of France's 67 million inhabitants will be affected.
Many bar and restaurant owners are now trembling in anticipation of the upcoming ban.
”I’ve never seen anything like this in the 50 years I’ve been here,” says Stain Roman, manager of the La Mere Buonavista restaurant in Marseille, one of the cities affected.
”What choice do you have? We will close in the evenings when everyone has to be home by nine.”
The French are not alone in facing stricter restrictions.
Belgium announced on Friday that bars and restaurants will close for four weeks. The federal government is citing a second wave of the coronavirus pandemic. The decision will take effect from Monday, October 19.
”"This virus is affecting our country badly. The next few weeks will be tough, but we have to make these decisions to avoid the worst," said Prime Minister Alexander De Croo after a five-hour government meeting.
A form of curfew from midnight to five in the morning will also be introduced for a month.
Germany will also tighten the rules, including reducing the number of people allowed to meet in closed groups, and restaurants and bars will be closed between 11 pm and 6 am.
The restrictions are being tightened as part of the increased spread of the infection in the country - over 5,000 new cases of the infection were recently reported in the course of a day.
Here too, many are looking at the upcoming tightening measures with trepidation – and in some cases even with defiance.
A court in the German capital Berlin has ruled that parts of the corona restrictions should be postponed.
The court rules that the decision to limit the opening hours of bars and restaurants is a disproportionate restriction and that it "has not been clearly demonstrated" that this measure will have a slowing effect on the spread of the infection.
The statement comes after eleven restaurant and bar owners appealed the decision regarding the new restrictions.
The appeal points out that the spread of infection often stems from private gatherings, travel and workplaces such as slaughterhouses.
Source: TT
