On Wednesday June 16th, Jean Castex announced that due to the drop in Covid-19 contagion numbers seen across the country, the wearing of a mask outdoors is no longer mandatory. The decision is effective as of June 17th certain exceptions apply. The requirement to wear a mask outdoors will remain in place for situations of close proximity (queueing, in transports, crowded places, stadiums, etc).
Castex underlined, however, that the lifting of the curfew, which is scheduled for Sunday June 20th, will not prevent the maintenance of health protocols for public places and the music festival of June 21 and other events until June 30 (organization of concerts only outdoors with barrier gestures and not on the public highway, rules of gauges for bars restaurants and entertainment venues), he added at the end of the Council of Ministers and the Defense Council chaired by Emmanuel Macron.
Regarding the vaccination campaign, the target was set at 35 million French people fully vaccinated in late August, he continued, welcoming the fact that contagion rate has declined to 3,200 daily cases on average over 7 days.
France was one of the last three countries in Europe to impose a curfew. It came into effect on October 30 at 9:00 p.m. in the whole country, then was advanced to 8:00 p.m. for the holiday season with an exemption for Christmas. It was then brought forward to 6:00 pm for the whole metropolitan area of Paris on January 16th. It was moved to 7:00 pm on March 20th, to 9:00 pm on May 19, and finally to 11:00 pm on June 9.
