Restaurants to remain closed in France till February

French bars and restaurants will not open until mid-February, the government published on Thursday, as new COVID-19 viruses remain high.

Prime Minister Jean Castex told media on Thursday afternoon that the number of new everyday cases average 15,000 — three times the outset the government had set for further easing.

He also supported the country's much-criticized vaccination strategy.

Bars and restaurants, which had hoped to open on January 20, are now looking at mid-February "at the earliest," Castex said.

Cultural venues, including galleries and cinemas, which were meant to reopen before Christmas, will also remain closed, as will lifts in ski resorts.

The government will meet on January 20 to decide whether a reopening in time for the February school vacations is possible.

The nighttime curfew running from 20:00 to 06:00 has been continued for another two weeks.

A more stringent curfew, starting two hours earlier, commanded across large swathes of France's east, could be extended to a further ten departments or regions, also in the east. The decision is to be taken on Friday evening.

"Vaccination has become the number one priority for the government," Castex said.

"We are convinced that this is the broadest, fastest vaccination campaign that will allow us to emerge from the crisis. But we must not confuse haste and speed."

Health Minister Olivier Vernon defended bureaucratic security measures but said procedures would be simplified and weapons delivered faster.

France's medical regulator had approved increasing the duration between two doses of Pfizer-BioNtech from three to six weeks, he said, allowing more citizens to get the first shot in the near term.

France still expected to deliver 1 million shots by the end of the month, Vernon confirmed. Only 45,000 have been administered so far.