Coronavirus: "We are no longer really in phase 2", according to Emmanuel Macron

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The head of state paid a surprise visit to the Samu call center at Necker-Enfants Malades hospital on Tuesday, where he said that France was only at the start of the coronavirus epidemic. and that the country was on the threshold of phase 3.

"We are at the very beginning of this epidemic" of the coronavirus in France, said Emmanuel Macron, Tuesday March 10, after a surprise visit to the Samu call center (15) of the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital in Paris, which receives approximately 6,000 calls per day.

"We are only at the beginning", "we must be clear and lucid", he warned the press, while protective measures have been reinforced at the Elysee Palace around him. One of his closest collaborators, his chief of staff Patrick Strzoda, who was in contact with a positive case, was thus requested to switch to telework.

Asked about the transition to phase 3 of protection measures in France, the Head of State explained that they would be differentiated on the territory.

"No longer really in phase 2"

"We have anticipated, we are under prepared," insisted the French president, who recalled that "85% of cases are mild." However, he acknowledged that "we are no longer really in phase 2" of the state of alert, given the arrangements made in the areas most affected by the virus.

The mission of the 15th is to sort between "normal" emergencies and those relating to the coronavirus. This is the case in Mulhouse, a major center of infection in France since a large evangelical gathering in late February.

"I think that one should not consider that there will be at some point in our country a great seesaw where everything will change," added Emmanuel Macron, launching calls for individual citizenship. "We have to remain extremely adaptable and at all times according to the differentiation of the territories".