The ban on the consumption of food and beverages in cinemas was one of the decisions announced this Monday by the French government to contain the fifth wave of COVID-19 infections.

The closure of the concessions, which goes into effect on January 3 and will run for at least three weeks, came from a crisis meeting on the new Ómicron variant that threatens to refill hospitals, held after France registered on Saturday more than 100,000 daily cases of COVID-19, a new record since a pandemic began nearly two years ago.

Although it does not impose new spectator limits specifically on cinemas, capacity limits will also be adopted again for shows, sports competitions and other events with a maximum of two thousand people indoors and five thousand in open environments.

With many experts warning that the number of infections will rapidly increase in the coming weeks, French Prime Minister Jean Castex also announced that the “health passport” that allows access to cinemas, restaurants and other places will be made available to fully vaccinated people. , a recent negative test for the unvaccinated is no longer valid.

In Portugal, the consumption of “popcorn and beverages” is maintained, but from December 25th until January 9th even those who are vaccinated must present a negative Covid-19 test (antigen carried out in the last 48 hours, or PCR up to 72 hours before), to be able to go to the cinema or enter a concert hall, as well as to have access to sports venues.

The Portuguese government’s decision was criticized by professionals in the cinema sector, who anticipated that it would leave theaters empty in the next two and a half weeks.

Speaking to CNN Portugal on Sunday, António Paulo Santos, from the Associação Portuguesa de Obras Audiovisual, highlighted that the influx of spectators on that day should not even reach a thousand spectators.