Macron Orders France Under De Facto House Arrest Following Germany With New Lockdown Orders

Both French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel announced fresh lockdowns of their citizens on Wednesday.

France will head into the new lockdown starting Friday under which citizens can only leave home to go to work, to go to school, for a medical appointment, to give assistance to loved ones, for essential shopping or for physical exercise, as DW reports.

The latest restrictions also include (courtesy of DW):

Travel between regions is banned Bars, restaurants and nonessential businesses will be closed Work must be done remotely wherever possible Universities and higher education will mostly be taught online International borders will be largely closed...

The lockdown in France is expected to last until December 1st with a reassessment occurring 15 days in...

Meanwhile, in Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel agreed to imposing “partial” lockdown measures that will shutdown of restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities from November 2-30.

“We need to take action now,” Merkel said. “Our health system can still cope with this challenge today, but at this speed of infections it will reach the limits of its capacity within weeks.”

Merkel’s finance minister tweeted Wednesday:

November will be a month of truth. The increasing number of infections is forcing us to take tough countermeasures now to avoid the second #Corona – Break the wave – with targeted and temporary measures, including effective financial aid for the industries concerned.#FlattenTheCurve...

As we reported earlier, lockdown measures are going to extremes in many parts of Europe with UK police now saying they will intervene in Christmas celebrations that violate social distancing orders issued by government.

Anti-lockdown demonstrations have recently broke out in the UK, Poland, and Italy.