All bars and restaurants will have to close their doors at 12.30am and all visits in Nice’s public care homes have been suspended.
The authorities have banned public events of more than 1,000 attendees and canceled the ‘European Heritage Days’ celebration, a series of cultural events set for this weekend.
On Thursday, health minister Olivier Veran warned of an “increasingly deteriorating situation,” and asked local authorities in the cities of Lyon and Nice to propose new measures by Saturday “to halt the virus circulation”.
The two cities are facing an incidence rate way above the alert threshold, which set at 50 cases per 100,000 people.
Nice is currently at a rate of 150 cases per 100,000 and Lyon is at 200 per 100,000.