New measures to try to control the third wave of COVID-19 infections in France are set to be imposed in the Greater Paris area and the northern Hauts-de-France region, which includes the cities of Lille, Calais and Amiens. 

The French government has decided to bring in the tighter restrictions due to the "deteriorating" health situation. 

Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said: "With the new variants, a new epidemic is starting." Adding that the measures will come into force this weekend and could include weekend lockdowns. 

They will be in addition to the restrictions that are currently in place. At the moment, the entire country is under a 6 p.m. - 6 a.m. nightly curfew and certain cities are under weekend confinements as well. 

The full details will be detailed at 6 p.m. local time on March 18 by the prime minister during the weekly government news conference. 

On the controversy surrounding the blood clots that have been reported in connection with the AstraZeneca vaccine, Attal told a news conference that "the data are reassuring, secondary effects are very rare."

As soon as the vaccine is re-approved by European regulators, he said, "we will restart the vaccines [of the AstraZeneca jab] without delay." 

 

READ MORE:

Secrets of 'world's first computer' revealed
 

Why has AstraZeneca's jab been suspended?
 

UK defense review explained
 

One year since the first lockdown 

On March 17, 2020, France went into its first coronavirus lockdown. At the time, just 148 people had died from the disease in the country. But one year later, more than 90,000 people have lost their lives to COVID-19, regional lockdowns are in place and new cases are rising again. 

In March 2020, there had been 6,600 confirmed cases. Twelve months on, more than 4 million people have tested positive for COVID-19 in France. 

The president said lockdown would be in place for two weeks but it lasted two months and many of the restrictions that were in place last spring remain in force. 

Bars, cafes and restaurants were shut in March last year and although they did reopen over the summer, they have been closed again since October 2020. 

Cinemas, theaters, galleries and museums, which also had to close in the first lockdown, have remained closed since the second lockdown, which started last fall. 

What has changed is the vaccination program, which is finally creaking into life after a slow and bureaucratic roll-out in France. 

"Looking back to March 2020, what we saw was truly unthinkable – an epidemic that was totally out of control, which needed almost all human activity across the world to stop," epidemiologist Philippe Amouyel told CGTN Europe. 

"We then saw something else unthinkable – the development of several vaccines in a matter of months, not years, with very high efficacy, which was a unique international collaboration. 

"That led us to find a possible route out of this crisis – something also unthinkable, bearing in mind where we were last March."