Voice of London

With the enforcement of their second lockdown, France has experienced an improvement in its Covid-19 situation.

According to the New York Times, the coronavirus cases has dropped sharply since the introduction of the lockdown earlier this month.

On the 9^th November, France registered 20,155 cases a number which has decreased dramatically since then sitting at only 9,406 cases as of the 16^th November.

It is clear to see the effect of lockdown in the handling of the Covid 19 situation in France.

Compared to the situation in the UK, the number remains high at roughly 20k cases per day since the beginning of the second lockdown.

The Voice of London discovered that compared to the first lockdown, the atmosphere of the current situation feels more relaxed and somewhat ‘unserious’.

Many members of public are still not wearing face coverings when traveling to work on the tube, putting themselves at risk of receiving a fine.

There have been numerous reports of illegal raves and mass gatherings at times past curfew.

Being able to control the virus gradually is based on the proper implementation of the lockdown and people’s compliance with the rules.

A Japanese restaurant owner told the Voice of London: “dine-in is not allowed in our restaurant, otherwise we’ll face a fine of €135. The fine may rise if we repeatedly opening our restaurants. As you can see, many restaurants are closed fully. They don’t even do take away service, because they can’t make enough money to keep the restaurants running”.

He continues to explain, “my sister owns a clothing shop across the street. She had to go to the store at midnight last night, to close the shop fully. Otherwise, they will all be forced to close today, and they don’t have enough time to do that.

“She had to pack away all of the clothing to avoid them getting dusty over the lockdown. I do think our government treat this pandemic seriously. Also, you can’t see that many people on the street anymore. When we go out, we make sure we wear masks, not only to protect ourselves, but also to protect those more vulnerable people”.

Voice of London has taken a video, showing how Paris looks like on the first day of second lockdown.

Words by Ye Qiu｜Subbed by: Grace Staley