We’ve all had questions about the coronavirus pandemic and what we can and can’t do under the restrictions that are being put in place to deal with it. Some of those answers are pretty straightforward, for example: can I go and hang out at the beach with thousands of others? No. No you can not. Other questions aren’t so obvious, and it turns out that people have been turning to the authorities to answer their more specific questions.
French police have released some of the questions that people have been calling them up to ask, and I am in desperate need of more context for most of them.
“Can my husband spend the weekend with his mistress?”
“A stranger caressed my horse, is there a risk it is contaminated?
“After my divorce, I managed to find someone. But he lives 25kms from my home. How can we do it under lockdown?”
One man was pulled over by police 50kms away from where he lived, and told the police that he was out because he “needed to buy a casserole.”
Some of the questions actually made some sort of sense, like “I took out my dog out this morning, can I do it this evening?” although the police are definitely not the people to call in that case.
There have also been major spikes in people calling up to dob in their neighbours for having people over or just generally not respecting confinement.
France has been in lockdown since March 17th, and people are only meant to leave their house for grocery shopping, medical visits, or exercise if they stay close to home. No word yet on whether the rules will be changed to allow people to spend the weekend with their mistresses, or whether casseroles will be recognised as essential, but I for one will be keeping an eye on the developing answers to these coronavirus questions.
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