France could be on track to implement the third nationwide lockout if the number of COVID-19 cases continues to rise. The country’s health minister said Sunday that another lockout could be on its way, with more cases expected after Christmas.
“We will never remove measures that are necessary to protect the public,” Olivier Veran, the country’s health minister, told the Journal du Dimanche.
“That is not to say that we have made a decision, but that we are looking at the situation from time to time,” he said.
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On average, the country has been ingesting 15,000 new cases of COVID-19 per day. On Friday, the country confirmed the first case of more rapid conversion of coronavirus first seen in the UK.
After experts said the new pressure is more contagious, countries quickly blocked travel to the United Kingdom. At least 50 countries have recently banned travel to and from the UK.
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After a 48-hour ban from the UK, France opened its borders to allow French citizens to return home. In addition, the construction of goods at the border was causing problems, which the government had to deal with.
France is on track to begin mass inoculation. On Saturday, the country received the first doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine.