The Assembly examines the extension of the state of health emergency

The Minister of Health, Olivier Veran, in front of the press in Matignon, Paris, October 22, 2020. -

The Minister of Health Olivier Véran defended this Saturday before the National Assembly the extension until February 16 of the state of health emergency to face a "period which will be long and difficult".

The deputies examine this weekend the bill which aims to extend this exceptional regime, re-triggered last Saturday and which notably allows curfews in part of the country.

"We need this text to be effective in the period" of the second wave of the coronavirus, said the minister, at the start of the debates.

"A text of responsibility"

It is "not a text of conviction" but "a text of responsibility to enable us to actively protect the French in this period which will be long and difficult", he added.

Olivier Véran recalled the latest figures: 42,000 French people diagnosed in 24 hours, 2,000 hospitalized patients, 300 admitted to intensive care, nearly 300 deaths in hospital and in Ephad.

The situation will "get worse in the coming days and weeks, whatever we do", he predicted, because of the dynamics of the virus.

The LR group defended a motion of preliminary rejection, against a "state of exception, which trivializes attacks on freedoms".

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• Curfew

• Covid 19

• Olivier Véran

• Coronavirus