France Faces Tough COVID Month, With Ski Lifts and Restaurants Set to Stay Shut

France Faces Tough COVID Month, With Ski Lifts and Restaurants Set to Stay Shut
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France Faces Tough COVID Month, With Ski Lifts and Restaurants Set to Stay Shut

France Faces Tough COVID Month, With Ski Lifts and Restaurants Set to Stay Shut

A more infectious coronavirus variant is expected to spread rapidly through France in the coming month, hospital chiefs said on Wednesday, raising fears of another lockdown as hopes faded that ski lifts and restaurants could reopen soon.

A government source told Reuters that ski lifts would most likely remain closed until the end of the season. Tourists can visit French resorts but the lifts have not run since the beginning of the season.

The source also said restaurants, closed apart from limited takeaway services since the end of October, will probably not reopen as planned on Feb. 1, with French media saying they would remain shut until early April.

Karine Lacombe, head of infectious diseases at Paris' Saint Antoine hospital, and Martin Hirsch, director general of the Paris hospitals system, both warned of the extra pressures facing the French healthcare system over the next month.

The two previous lockdowns last year were aimed at preventing hospitals from being overwhelmed by COVID-19 patients.

"We know this variant spreads much more quickly and, above all, it is more infectious. So, yes, we think that it will change the dynamic of the pandemic in the weeks to come," Lacombe told BFM TV.

The spread of this variant, first detected in England, has prompted Britain, Germany and Ireland to reimpose lockdowns.

France has stopped short such a measure for now - opting instead for a national 6 p.m. curfew - but members of the government have warned it is not off the table.

COVID-19 figures for Jan. 19 showed the seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out daily data reporting irregularities, had increased to 18,820, the highest since Nov. 23.

The number of coronavirus patients in intensive care has now gone up for 10 consecutive days, to 2,839, a run not seen since early November, when France had just entered its second lockdown.

"We fear it will be extremely tough, especially in March. On a local level ... when the number of admissions in ICU units will ramp up, we probably will need more restrictive measures than the curfew," Lacombe said.

"We must remain alert and act as soon as we spot a deterioration of the indicators."



Russia’s Medvedev Predicts More Countries Will Acquire Nuclear Weapons 

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party program commission in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP) 
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party program commission in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP) 
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Russia’s Medvedev Predicts More Countries Will Acquire Nuclear Weapons 

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party program commission in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP) 
Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman and the head of the United Russia party Dmitry Medvedev speaks during a meeting of the United Russia party program commission in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (Ekaterina Shtukina, Sputnik Pool Photo via AP) 

Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Tuesday that more countries would get nuclear weapons in the coming years, blaming the West for pushing the world towards the brink of World War Three by waging a proxy war against Russia in Ukraine.

Medvedev, who cast himself as a liberal modernizer when he was president from 2008-2012, now presents himself as an anti-Western Kremlin hawk. Diplomats say his remarks give an indication of thinking at the top levels of the Kremlin elite.

In a post about the New START nuclear arms reduction treaty which he signed with then US President Barack Obama in Prague in 2010, Medvedev said the risk of nuclear conflict was at an all-time high. The treaty is due to expire in February 2026.

Referring to recent statements from the leaders of France and Britain about their nuclear arsenals, the deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council chastised European powers for what he said was saber-rattling over their "meager strategic capabilities" and said the situation was fraught with danger.

"The situation is such that even with the complete cessation of the conflict over so-called 'Ukraine' nuclear disarmament in the coming decades is impossible," Medvedev wrote on his official Telegram channel.

"The world will create new, more destructive types of weapons, and new countries will acquire nuclear arsenals."

Russia and the United States are by far the world's biggest nuclear powers, with about 88% of all nuclear weapons, followed by China, France, Britain, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea, according to the Federation of American Scientists.