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Friday, 30 October 2020_France undergoes a second full lockdown, this time on the entire territory. The impact on the economy might be huge, but this seems to be the price to pay in order to repel the coronavirus.
French President Macron announced a full national lockdown for at least one month. The reason: positive coronavirus cases doubled or even tripled the last four weeks, and the number of fatalities due to COVID increased drastically.
Local lockdowns and curfews are definitely not sufficient to repel the virus. A second lockdown in six months time. Many shopkeepers fear for a national bankruptcy.
Bars and restaurants are the most obvious victims of the lockdown, but other sectors are not spared. France is a big airplane manufacturer. Airbus is a European company, but France has an important part in it. The aviation sector is already very affected and will be even more with the second lockdown.
Due to the coronavirus crisis, there will be an estimated minus 10 percent economic growth this year. The unemployment rate will probably go over 10 percent before the end of the year.
Macron said that almost 10,000 patients will be in intensive care by mid November, meanwhile France has less than 6,000 hospital beds available.
The French government hopes that the full lockdown on the entire territory will push back the coronavirus, but the impact on the economy will definitely be catastrophic.
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