The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, announced that the cases of people positive for the coronavirus are clearly on the rise in France.
According to him, 18,000 contaminations were observed in 24 hours: an unprecedented increase in Covid patients.
There hadn't been so many cases since mid-May.
The number of cases of Covid-19 contamination over the last 24 hours has climbed to 18,000, against less than 7,000 a week earlier, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran was alarmed on Tuesday, according to whom this increase, due to the Delta variant , is unpublished.
"I have just had the contamination figures for the last 24 hours in our country (...) We were yesterday at 18,000 contaminations over 24 hours only", assured the minister during the questioning session to the government in the Assembly national.
The final figures for the last 24 hours will be published in the evening by Public Health France.
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"This means that we have an increase in the circulation of the virus of the order of 150% over a week: we have never experienced this, neither with the Covid (the historical strain of the virus, editor's note), nor with the English variant, neither with South African nor with Brazilian, ”he continued.
Such a level of positive cases had not been observed since mid-May.
Vaccination, "it's the only way we have"
"We have a weapon, the vaccination," he pleaded.
"The time is no longer for doubt, for hesitation, the time is for collective immunity, it is collective responsibility and it is the only way we have (...) to get rid of the Covid once and for all ".
After several weeks of decline, the number of cases started to rise again because of the Delta variant, which is more contagious. The government fears that this increase in cases, which mainly affects young people for the moment, will eventually spread to the elderly or fragile unvaccinated and lead to an increase in hospitalizations.