Paris bans daytime jogging as virus deaths hit new high

Paris officials announced on Tuesday that they would ban daytime jogging to keep people from bending anti-coronavirus lockdown rules, after France recorded its biggest daily jump in the death toll from the outbreak.

Under nationwide stay-at-home orders that came into force on March 17, people can leave their homes only for essential purposes, which until now included a solo walk or run within a one-kilometre (0.6-mile) radius of home.

But amid a spell of sunny spring weather, large groups of Parisians were seen running, walking and congregating over the weekend, even as police stepped up patrols and issued fines for lockdown violations.

Starting on Wednesday, Paris will enforce a ban on individual outdoor sports between the hours of 10.00am and 07.00pm.

Officials worry that confinement violations could further burden hospitals already overflowing with Covid-19 patients, and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner on Monday urged municipal officials to toughen restrictions if necessary.

“Every excursion avoided aids the fight against the epidemic,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and police chief Didier Lallement said in a statement.

Also on Tuesday, the Atlantic coastal resort city of Biarritz limited the period people can sit on benches or in other public areas to two minutes maximum, saying confinement meant that “dawdling is prohibited.”

Paris, Biarritz and other cities have already closed public parks and gardens as part of the nationwide lockdown that requires people to carry a document justifying any excursion from the home.

Those caught without the document risk a fine starting at 135 euros.

In the north of France, the mayor of Marcq-en-Baroeul has made spitting in public, coughing or sneezing without covering one’s face, and throwing used masks and gloves in the street punishable by a fine of 68 euros.

The tougher rules came after Health Minister Olivier Veran announced on Monday a record daily coronavirus death toll of 833 people in 24 hours.

“It is not over,” the minister said, urging people to “stay at home and continue this confinement effort”.

Like many other nations, France debated on Tuesday the merits of encouraging, or compelling, people to wear face masks to prevent asymptomatic virus-carriers from passing it on to others.

Veran said on Tuesday that it remained an “open question” that required further scientific investigation.

France’s Academy of Medicine, which advises the government on epidemics, has advocated mask-wearing as an aid in curbing the outbreak, but international bodies, including the World Health Organization (WHO) disagree.

But Hidalgo said in a radio interview on Tuesday that she would not oblige face mask use for now, though she did encourage people to cover their faces in public.

France’s finance ministry, meanwhile, said dozens of companies have produced 3.9 million fabric masks for non-medical professional use in the past week, and will produce 6.6 million more in the days to come.

The country’s Order of Pharmacists and two labour unions urged the government, meanwhile, to allow pharmacies to sell “alternative” non-medical grade masks to members of the public as an added protection.

The WHO said on Monday that asking the general public to wear face masks could be justified in areas where hand-washing and physical distancing were difficult, but warned that masks alone could not stop the pandemic.

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