This is News from France, a weekly review in English, for Sunday 14 March

The focus for this week was:

• the high level of daily Covid-19 cases
• relaxation of travel restrictions with the UK and six other, non EU countries
• protests from theatre workers at continued closures
• and higher costs for movie makers in Paris.

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There were 29,759 new Covid-19 cases in the 24-hours to Sunday.

The vaccine programme continued with 4.85 million people injected so far.

On Friday, France’s top health authority (Haute Autorité de santé (HAS) announced approval for the one-shot vaccine produced by US pharmaceutical group Johnson & Johnson for use against Covid-19. It followed the go-ahead from the EU authorities the previous day.

There are concerns of a further lockdown in the Paris region, and the government’s health council (conseil de défense sanitaire) is due to meet again this week to discuss the situation.

To date, 4 million people have been infected and 90,000 have died after contracting the virus in France.

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As from Friday, travelers to and from Australia, South Korea, Israel, Japan, New Zealand, the UK and Singapore no longer need to justify a compelling reason to travel, the foreign ministry announced.

However, they still need a negative Covid-19 test result within 72 hours of travel.

French Tourism Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne said this easing was due to the improving health situation in those countries.

He wrote on Twitter: “The list includes Britain, because the UK variant now also circulates widely in France.”

The highly contagious British variant of the virus accounts for 67 percent of all new infections, according to the health ministry.

The foreign ministry said that in general it strongly recommends limiting international travel as much as possible.

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Artists and workers have carried out protests across France at the continued closure of theatres, cinemas, art galleries and other cultural spaces which have been shut since October.

The protesters say there is no need to keep the venues closed when social-distancing measures can be enforced.

A week-long sit-in at the Odeon theatre in Paris continued despite the offer of a further 30 million euros in financial aid by the government.

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The Paris Council (Conseil de Paris) announced on Thursday new rates for media companies using the city as a backdrop for their productions.

Applicable from the start of April, film makers will need to find an extra 10 percent to pay their bills in the city.

Despite the Covid restrictions the city booked 5,000 days of shooting by media companies last year – adding about 800,000 euros to the city coffers. Most of the companies have been French – and include the recent Netflix success “Lupin”.

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This has been News from France, a weekly review in English, today Sunday 14 March 2021

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