This is news from France for Sunday 9 May
This week:
The government stepped up its vaccine programme
There was a slight uptick in employment numbers
and protests over fishing reached the island of Jersey.
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The French vaccine programme against Covid-19 is being stepped up with people aged over 50 able to book an appointment from Monday.
As of Sunday 17.53 million people had received a first injection. New daily cases reported stood at 20,745.
President Macron said on Thursday he was “absolutely in favour” of a global waiver on Covid-19 patent protection.
No French pharmaceutical company has yet developed a vaccine.
Current restrictions on movement are due to be reviewed in ten days time. For now, the overnight curfew remains in place.
Quarantine for people arriving from a further seven countries came into force on Saturday night.
They include Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
Travel is only permitted for essential reasons and all travelers have to comply with strict, pre-travel conditions followed by a compulsory 10-day quarantine on arrival.
Travelers from India, South Africa, Brazil, Chile and Argentina are already subject to the quarantine.
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The national statistics bureau
(INSEE) has reported an increase in
private payroll employment for the first
quarter of the year.
It is the second quarterly increase since the Covid pandemic began – the first being in the summer of 2020.
There were a total of 57,300 new jobs created across all sectors.
Overall unemployment remains at 8 percent. Business managers surveyed in April remain optimistic for a strong rebound in investment in manufacturing this year, particularly for electrical, electronic and machine equipment.
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UK navy vessels were sent to Jersey in the Bay of St Malo amid protests from French fishermen over licenses to fish in the waters around the island.
Jersey is a self-governing British Crown Dependency 22 kilometers from the French coast and 137 kilometers south of the English one. It was part of the Duchy of Normandy, whose dukes went on to become kings of England from 1066.
The island issues its own fishing licenses but Brexit has led to changes in the permits available for French boats.
Jersey boats have also faced problems landing their catches in France.
About 50 French fishing boats arrived at dawn on Thursday.
According to the UK government, the two Royal Navy patrollers (HMS Severn and HMS Tamar) were sent to “monitor the situation.”
French authorities said their police boat (Athos) and patroller (Themis) were on a public service mission to ensure safety.
The fishing boats left the area on Thursday afternoon and the UK and French vessels were withdrawn.
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This has been News from France for Sunday 9 May 2021.