France will close all schools and universities across the country in response to the coronavirus pandemic, MailOnline reports.
President Emmanuel Macron announced the new measures in a live television interview from the Elysée Palace in Paris earlier this evening.
The head of state described the spread of the virus as the ‘greatest health crisis France has known for a century’ and said that all schools, colleges and universities will close from Monday ‘until further notice’.
President Emmanuel Macron announced the new measures in a live television interview from the Elysée Palace in Paris earlier this evening.
He said: ‘Despite our efforts, the virus is accelerating.
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‘It will hit the most vulnerable people first and we are taking great efforts to increase massively the capacity in our hospitals.
‘We have to prepare for the second wave, which will hit younger people. We have to prepare our emergency staff.
‘We need to win time but the priority is to protect the most vulnerable.
‘For our collective interest, from Monday and until further notice, nurseries, schools, colleges, high schools and universities will be closed.
‘Closed for a simple reason: our children and our youngest, according to scientists, are the ones who seem to spread the virus the fastest.’
It is believed to be the first time that the entire education system in France has been shut in response to a national emergency.
President Emmanuel Macron addressed the nation during a television interview this evening where he announced the new measures (stock image)
The French President also warned that he may even be forced to shut the country’s borders, adding that ‘if necessary, we will close frontiers but only in co-ordination with the EU.’
But in a veiled reference to US President Donald Trump’s decision to suspend some travel to the United States, Macron said nationalism was not the answer to the virus.
He said the disease has no nationality, and that if national frontiers had to be closed, it would only be when it was essential.
