PARIS (Reuters) - France will shut shops, restaurants and entertainment facilities from Sunday with its 67 million people told to stay home to help fight the rapid acceleration of the coronavirus in a country where the number of cases has doubled in 72 hours.
The government had no other option, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a news conference after the public health authority said 91 people had died in France and almost 4,500 were now infected.
"We didn't expect it to be so quick," said Jason Holt, 28, manager at the Cafe Montparnasse."We're a little shocked because we're going to find ourselves without work." "We were a little depressed because we didn't expect it, but we said okay, let's do our last night today," said 18-year-old student Nadia Abd-Ali, sipping a cocktail with her friend.
The go-ahead for elections drew some criticism and concern over the possibility of people being infected at polling stations.
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