The new outbreak of Covid-19 cases affecting Corsica has just got the better of the traditional Napoleonic evenings in Ajaccio. Scheduled from Thursday to Sunday to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Napoleon, August 15, 1769 in the same city, they are now canceled, announced Monday the tourist office of the country of Ajaccio.
Each year during these three days, the city takes on the appearance of a battlefield and bivouac with the reconstruction of street fights by hundreds of enthusiasts from all over Europe, corseted in their uniforms of grognards or hunters of the Guard. imperial or in First and Second Empire dresses.
A sustained mass
Thursday, a big outdoor cinema evening with the screening of Napoleon (and me) by Paolo Virzì (2006) is canceled just like the show Napoleon and the Imperial Guard Friday, which was to revisit the creation of this famous guard in period costume. Also canceled on Saturday the reconstitution of balls I and Second Empire in the courtyard of the Palais Fesch-Musée des Beaux-Arts.
A concert, under the direction of the conductor Jean-Christophe Spinosi, which was already to take place on May 5 on the occasion of the bicentenary of the Emperor’s death and had been postponed due to the epidemic, is at again postponed to a later date. Only the ceremony celebrating the birth of Napoleon Bonaparte in “restricted gauge” is maintained, which will be marked on Sunday at 10 am by a mass at Ajaccio cathedral.
Return of the mask
Corsica is particularly affected by the fourth wave of Covid-19 with an incidence rate of 643 per 100,000 inhabitants last week, while the national average was 230 per 100,000 inhabitants. In an attempt to slow this outbreak, the prefects of the island have taken restrictive measures including the return of the wearing of compulsory masks in the main cities and the cancellation of parties and events bringing together crowds.
In total, 241 people have died on this island of 340,000 inhabitants since the start of the epidemic, including four since Saturday and 84 people are hospitalized including 17 in intensive care or intensive care, according to the latest report from the Regional Health Agency published on Monday. . Two new medical evacuations from Bastia to Marseille and Ajaccio took place, also announced Monday the ARS which counts four new clusters in the island.