On Friday, the head of France's hospital federation Frederic Valletoux called for a new nationwide lockdown in order to curb the spread of Covid-19 infections.
Valletoux, who is also mayor of Fontainebleau just south of Paris, told LCI TV that while the situation in hospitals was under control for now, it remained "very tense" in many areas.
This comes a day after Prime Minister Jean Castex said the Covid-19 situation in the country was "fragile" but did not justify a new lockdown at present.
Castex stated that the rate of infection had not significantly increased over the past two weeks, even if the pressure on French hospitals remained strong.
“We must stick with the current restrictions we already have in place [...] but the situation today does not justify a new national lockdown,” he told a news conference.
His statements contradicted the views of several leading French medics.
The head of infectious diseases at Saint Antoine hospital in Paris Karine Lacombe affirmed that the new measures to curb the spread of infections were "inevitable."
"We're still at a high plateau in France. And to bring it down, new restrictive measures will be inevitable," Lacombe told France Inter radio.
In January, the French authorities said that they detected more infectious variant of Covid-19, first found in Britain, in the country’s Mediterranean port of Marseille and in the Alps.
On turn, Marseille Mayor Benoit Payan said that seven to eight people had tested positive for the new variant in the city, while tests were underway on 30 others who may also have been exposed to it.
“Right now, every minute counts in terms of preventing the spread of this English variant,” Payan told reporters.
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