French Coast Crowded Again After Easing Lockdown

Cote D'Azur Beach, France (Rhiannon Elliott / Unsplash)

JAKARTA - The relaxation of lockdown in France has entered a new stage. The government, which initially only focused on allowing business activity centers to operate again, has now begun to widen its easing policy by reopening beaches in green zones or areas with the least number of infections on Saturday, May 16.

Reopened beaches include the coastline of northern France and the Mediterranean Coast. As a result, French citizens began to flood these beaches. Some choose to swim, some take walks, and some choose to surf.

Launching Reuters, the government allows its citizens to do activities on the beach, such as swimming, fishing and surfing. Everything can be done as long as residents maintain a distance or physical distancing and wear masks.

Not only that, the regulation also contains cases of activities that cannot be carried out in the form of prohibitions on sunbathing and living on the beach for a long time. Then, it is very unfortunate for beach visitors because they cannot sunbathe and relax on the beach.

"I'm a little annoyed. Even though we can swim this morning and can enjoy the sea we haven't seen in almost two months. However, we can't sunbathe and relax. We are not completely free yet," said one visitor.

Even so, French Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said the regulation was quite appropriate. Especially considering that COVID-19 is still a serious threat to France today.

"The virus is still there. We have to learn to live with it. People can go fishing but not linger on the beach for hours. We are all responsible in the fight against COVID-19. "

"If that rule is not respected, we will reverse our decision by closing the beaches back," he threatened while visiting Veules-Les-Roses beach to check the situation.

Previously, the government had relaxed the lockdown since May 11. That allowed many shops, factories and other businesses to be allowed to reopen. Due to the decreasing number of cases, the government has also opened beaches and parks.

So far France has confirmed 141,919 cases of COVID-19 transmission. Among them, there were 27,529 deaths.