PARIS — After greater than a yr of lockdowns and months of a sputtering vaccination marketing campaign, Europe’s efforts to curb the coronavirus pandemic suffered one other setback on Wednesday as President Emmanuel Macron of France introduced the beginning of a 3rd nationwide lockdown in a determined transfer to halt a brand new lethal wave.

With infections surging, hospitals swelling with sufferers and the virus now reaching into lecture rooms, Mr. Macron successfully deserted a monthslong gamble to hold France open within the hope {that a} regular tempo of vaccinations would make a lockdown pointless. He stated that restrictions at the moment masking about one-third of the nation’s inhabitants could be prolonged nationwide for 4 weeks beginning Saturday, and that faculties could be closed for at the least three weeks.

As the tally of coronavirus deaths pushed relentlessly shut to the 100,000 mark, and with the extremely transmissible variant first detected in Britain now accounting for two-thirds of France’s new infections, Mr. Macron gave in to scientists and opposition politicians who had been urgent for a lockdown in current weeks, and joined the listing of European nations already hunkering down earlier than the virus.

About three-quarter of Italy’s inhabitants is barred from going outside aside from work, well being or different necessities. Germany has additionally imposed a partial lockdown, with various levels of restrictions relying on the area, whereas Poland closed all nonessential outlets and switched most of its faculties to distant studying.

The measures introduced by Mr. Macron cease wanting the strict nationwide shutdown of a yr in the past that saved most individuals indoors and left Paris’s world-famous points of interest abandoned. This time, folks shall be ready to go outdoors with out filling out kinds, although they are going to be restricted to a six-mile radius from their houses, won’t be allowed to journey between areas and may have to respect a nighttime curfew between 7 p.m. and 6 a.m.

The determination on faculties — which France had succeeded in conserving open longer than different nations and which the federal government had showcased as the brilliant spot in an in any other case troubled dealing with of the virus disaster and the vaccination marketing campaign — was a very laborious blow for Mr. Macron.

Though he and different members of his authorities had persistently described closing faculties as a measure of final resort, the president on Wednesday introduced that, after the Easter vacation, major faculties would shut for 3 weeks, and that center and excessive faculties would shut for 4 weeks.

“We have kept them open since September 2020,” Mr. Macron stated, referring to the faculties. “France is one of the few countries that have made this choice while being hit hard by the virus.”

Exhorting the French to hold making efforts, Mr. Macron stated that the aim was to have all adults vaccinated by the top of the summer time “because it is the key to reconnect with life, the key to reopen our country.”

Mr. Macron’s announcement — coming on the finish of an uncharacteristically heat, summerlike day throughout which some Parisians went outdoors briefly sleeves or gentle clothes — reversed the stance he had taken since early this yr. In late January, even as neighboring nations have been making use of restrictive measures and his personal scientific advisers have been advising him to do the identical, Mr. Macron rejected a brand new nationwide lockdown.

That technique appeared to be working for some weeks. But by mid-March, infections rose sharply and the vaccination marketing campaign failed to collect velocity, amid the disarray of the rollout of the AstraZeneca vaccine. Both political opponents, with an eye fixed on presidential elections scheduled for subsequent yr, and a few scientists stated he had “lost his gamble.”

Bruno Cautrès, a political scientist on the Center for Political Research at Sciences Po in Paris, stated that the dealing with of the coronavirus disaster had develop into a political problem for Mr. Macron, who has lengthy promised to make authorities efficient and who had “taken personal responsibility” in opposing a 3rd nationwide lockdown.

“What appears today is, on the contrary, the idea of a head of state who plays it by ear and who doesn’t really know where he’s going,” Mr. Cautrès stated, including, “The judgment that the French will make of the handling of the crisis will be the pillar of the 2022 election.”

Amid more and more dire warnings from well being officers, France on Tuesday reported greater than 5,000 folks in intensive care items for the primary time since final April. Over the previous week, France recorded a mean every day tally of greater than 38,000 new instances, practically triple the quantity three months earlier.

Mr. Macron’s guess that tight restrictions weren’t wanted appeared to be primarily based on an environment friendly vaccine marketing campaign that by no means materialized. France, like many of the European Union, lags far behind another nations in inoculating its folks.

French well being authorities on Wednesday stated that about 8.5 million folks had acquired at the least a primary shot of a Covid vaccine, or about 13 p.c of the entire inhabitants. Britain has vaccinated 46 p.c of its inhabitants, and the United States 29 p.c, in accordance to data from The New York Times.

Despite the worsening state of affairs, Mr. Macron has argued that his determination in January had not been unsuitable as a result of it had not led to the explosion of instances that had been predicted.

“I can state that I don’t have any mea culpas,” he told a French newspaper final Sunday.

Antoine Flahault, the director of the Institute of Global Health on the University of Geneva, stated that the French authorities had usually adopted the recommendation of scientists till late January. But, on Jan. 29, Mr. Macron rejected the recommendation of his personal scientific council — a authorities physique that the president had arrange final yr to advise him on coronavirus points and that had pressed for a strict four-week lockdown.

Mr. Flahault stated that regardless of the federal government’s determination to hold issues open, no new measures have been put in place to stop a brand new surge.

“For the entire month of February, there’s going to be an absence of goals, an absence of real strategy,” he stated.

The authorities responded to the worsening state of affairs in mid-March with new restrictions on sure areas, affecting a 3rd of the inhabitants. Businesses thought of nonessential have been pressured to shut, folks’s outside actions have been restricted and journey to and from affected areas was banned.

Mr. Macron’s technique mirrored the fact that, in France’s system of presidency, energy is extremely concentrated within the fingers of the president. As in earlier key moments within the pandemic, rumors had circulated for days earlier than Mr. Macron’s Wednesday speech, with ministers admitting, albeit anonymously, to the French information media that they’d no thought what measures could be put in impact.

In current months, the Élysée has tried to finesse Mr. Macron’s dealing with of the virus disaster, distancing him when hassle has emerged and transferring him nearer when issues have appeared up.

That technique has generally taken on unusual twists, as when his entourage this week appeared to attempt to fend off criticism that Mr. Macron had ignored the recommendation of epidemiologists. The president was a lot much less depending on specialists than he had been a yr earlier, they stated, as a result of he had studied and browse a lot on the virus.

“The president has acquired a real expertise on issues of health,” his nationwide schooling minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, was quoted as saying in Le Monde. “It’s not an inaccessible subject for an intellect like his and given the significant time he’s devoted to it for several months.”

Le Monde associated how folks shut to Mr. Macron “were impressed by the mastery of the head of state, who has kept up with numerous research studies on the subject of the coronavirus.” According to the article, Mr. Macron was now able to “challenging” his personal well being minister and specialists.

“Emmanuel Macron wanted to instill a rather heroic narrative about himself,” stated Mr. Cautrès, the political scientist. “He is the one who faces all the storms, all the difficulties.”