Lunchtime News Wednesday 21st April 2021

News

 Mayor of Nice speaks of health situation and plans for reopening - The mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi has spoken to France’s Health Minister Olivier Véran about his intentions for the lifting of the restrictions in Nice. On Tuesday Estrosi spoke of the “encouraging figures for the region” with the incidence rate having dropped to 198 and the number of people being hospitalised standing at its lowest since the beginning of the year.

The mayor stressed that the “reassuring indicators” were no doubt due to the fact that the Alpes Maritimes went into lockdown ahead of other regions in France. Next week Estrosi plans to put forward details of a health protocol to the minister of health proposing the “reopening of around fifty restaurants to assess procedures and measure the impact on the transmission of the virus, with the monitoring of customers”. The mayor says that pedestrianized areas of the city will be able to extend terraces with the distribution of self-tests, which will be compulsory at least for the first ten days of May.

European drugs regulator – Meanwhile the EU's drugs regulator has said that blood clots should be listed as a "very rare" side effect of the Johnson & Johnson Covid-19 vaccine. The European Medicines Agency said in a statement that it had found a "possible link" between the jab and clots. But it added that the benefits of the Covid-19 vaccine outweighed the risks.

In other news

Weather warning - Meteo France has placed the Alpes Maritimes on a yellow weather alert this morning with thunderstorms forecast. The warning is in place until 3pm this afternoon with sunny spells expected by early evening.

Boss of waste processing company placed in police custody - The boss of a waste reprocessing company in the Var has been  placed in police custody, suspected of having illegally stored 160,000 tonnes of waste. The man is suspected of having stored 7,000 square meters of site waste in Puget-sur-Argens (Var) for the last four years instead of reprocessing it. The illegal storage had been going on since 2017, despite a warning from the town city council in 2018.

And Finally

If you're looking for a new job and fancy a break from social media, this could be the perfect role for you. An intelligent learning platform is recruiting three members of the public in the paid job role. It will involve replacing the use of the social media platform in favour of learning a new skill for less than an hour a day.

Hownow is recruiting for the positions after a screen time study found the average adult spends 58 minutes a day on Instagram. The closing date is May 7 According to the job description, the chosen candidate must replace social media use with learning instead.

The candidates will be able to work remotely, and choose what skills they learn, as long as it's not something they've done before. This could be a new language or learning a musical instrument

Each candidate will have three months to learn the skill, and will be expected to submit weekly reports on their progress.

 

 

Last local news

Evening Update Wednesday 24th of April

French scientists have been developing technological tools for the past four years to help athletes optimize their training for the Paris 2024 Olympic... Evening Update Wednesday 24th of April Read More

24/04/2024

French and Riviera News Wednesday 24th April 2024

Nice airport says as many as 60% of flights will be cancelled tomorrow due to a nationwide strike by air traffic controllers.... French and Riviera News Wednesday 24th April 2024 Read More

24/04/2024

Evening Update Tuesday 23rd of April

After eight months of work and several sea trials, the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle has begun a six-week operation in the Mediterranean, ... Evening Update Tuesday 23rd of April Read More

23/04/2024

French and Riviera News Tuesday 23rd April 2024

A group of experts have come up with more than 150 recommendations for how Nice can deal with the increasing effects of climate change.... French and Riviera News Tuesday 23rd April 2024 Read More

23/04/2024

Evening Update Monday 22nd of April

Some communes in the Alpes-Maritimes will be plunged into darkness this Monday evening. For the third year running to mark Earth Day, mayors in the Al... Evening Update Monday 22nd of April Read More

22/04/2024