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PROTESTS AGAINST COVID RESTRICTIONS CONTINUE IN EUROPE
- By The Financial District
- Apr 12, 2021
- 2 min read
Police in Paris have arrested nine people and fined about 160 more since the beginning of the weekend for clandestinely meeting in closed restaurants despite COVID-19 restrictions, according to a Euronews report.
Protests against COVID-19 restrictions were meanwhile held in multiple European capitals on Saturday.
Police in the French capital said on Sunday morning that they had arrested seven people during the night in two separate operations at a shisha bar and a restaurant for refusing to comply with an order to disperse and attacking officers. Fifty-eight people were also issued fines.
The previous evening, they had already arrested the owner and the manager of a restaurant where 110 people had gathered clandestinely. All were also issued fines.
It comes days after the government's actions were questioned following the release of a documentary that accused ministers of dining in secret restaurants in violation of COVID rules.
France is currently under lockdown with all but non-essential shops closed, including restaurants and bars. A nighttime curfew running from 19:00 CET to 06:00 CET is also in force.
The new four-week lockdown was imposed last weekend to battle a surge in cases attributed to the spread of the British variant and which has put hospitals, and ICU units in particular, under serious strain.
A week later, the daily number of confirmed cases remains high with more than 43,280 infections detected on Saturday. The country has the second-highest COVID-19 death toll in the European Union after Italy at 98,602.
Twenty people were meanwhile arrested in Finland on Saturday as they protesters against measures to fight COVID-19.
About 300 people took part in the unauthorized protest in Helsinki — public gatherings of more than six people are currently banned in Finland to prevent the spread of the deadly virus. The arrests were carried out after a police order to disperse was ignored.
Finland and its 5.5 million inhabitants have one of the best records against COVID-19 in Europe with a death toll of 866 and fewer than 114,000 cases confirmed. But a rise in the incidence rate in mid-February prompted the authorities into taking additional measures, including closing restaurants.
