France inches toward new lockdown

The French government admitted on Wednesday that current restrictions designed to contain the spread of coronavirus were not enough, raising the prospect of a third nationwide lockdown. 'Maintaining the current regime looks very unlikely', spokesman Gabriel Attal said after a cabinet meeting, amid concern about the spread of the more contagious UK variant of COVID-19. A nationwide night curfew, which was introduced on January 14, is 'not sufficient at this stage', Attal added, leaving the government to study new options. President Emmanuel Macron was reported at the weekend to favour a new lockdown, but the government decided to hold off for several days to analyse the data on new infections and hospital admissions.