France echoes UK’s new ‘stay alert’ coronavirus lockdown strategy in surprising way

The Prime Minister has come under fire from many for the new “stay alert” tagline’s confusing nature.

On Sunday, French president Emmanuel Macron unveiled the “sauvez des vies, restez prudents” tagline, which roughly translates to “save lives, stay cautious”.

In a tweet yesterday evening, the French President said: “Thanks to you, the virus is receding.

“But it is still there.”

It comes as France cautiously begins to lift its lockdown measured after eight weeks.

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Speaking at Downing Street’s daily press briefing on Monday, Boris Johnson said that the French governments messagings is similar, and defended the UK’s new tagline.

He said: “For those who think that the stay alert is not the right message, I think it is absolutely the right message for our country now.”

He added about Frances new slogan: “Which is, as I’m sure everybody knows, roughly the same sort of thing as our message and I think it’s the right way to go.”

Mr Johnson was answering a question about people being confused by the change from the former “stay at home” advice.

The controversial new coronavirus messaging by the government came on Sunday as Boris Johnson announced that the UK begins to gently ease its lockdown measures.

Nicola Sturgeon, Scotland’s first minister, has refused to adopt the slogan for Scotland, retaining the original “stay at home” message.

She said: “ I don’t know what ‘stay alert’ means.

“For Scotland right now . . . it would be catastrophic for me to drop the ‘stay at home’ message.

“I am particularly not prepared to do it for a message that is vague and imprecise.”

The Guardian also revealed that the two experts who have guided the government’s response to the coronavirus were not asked to approve the controversial new “stay alert” message.

Neither Prof Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer for England, nor Sir Patrick Vallance, the government’s chief scientific adviser, were asked to sign off on dropping the “stay at home” advice before Boris Johnson unveiled the new strategy on Sunday night.

It comes as experts who attend meetings of Sage broke cover to criticise the government over its handling of the change in messaging, with some complaining that Downing Street had sidelined them from the process.