France wants its citizens to holiday at home this summer

PARIS: The French government does not want its citizens to travel abroad this summer and recommends they take their holidays in France, Environment Minister Elisabeth Borne said on Sunday (May 24).

Earlier this month, President Emmanuel Macron said it was unlikely that French people would be able to undertake major foreign trips this summer and that even trips within Europe may have to be limited to reduce the risk of a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic.

Borne, in an interview with France Inter radio, also said that next week the government would decide on possibly loosening rules on French domestic travel, currently limited to a maximum 100 kilometres from home.

She said Paris parks had to remain closed for now, as the capital was still a "red zone" for virus circulation.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo has repeatedly called on the government to reopen parks as Parisians, who mostly live in apartments without gardens, tend to congregate around the closed parks where it is difficult to respect social distancing rules.

The number of confirmed new coronavirus infections in France increased by 115, or 0.1 per cent, to 144,921 on Sunday, the lowest daily increase since the country went into lockdown on Mar 17, the health ministry said in a statement.

But the number of patients in hospital with COVID-19 increased slightly by seven to 17,185 after falling every day without interruption since Apr 15.

READ: France revises down coronavirus death toll

A health ministry official said that because of the long Ascension weekend in France hospitals were slower in reporting their data and people were also staying in hospital slightly longer.

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