On the eve of the implementation of the curfew throughout the territory, France identified, Friday, January 15, 21,217 confirmed cases of Covid-19 (against 21,228 the day before).

The vaccination campaign will be expanded on Monday, and making an appointment, possible since Thursday, is proving more and more complicated, the slots being quickly full.

Faced with the threat of new, more contagious variants of Covid-19, the 6 p.m. curfew will be extended on Saturday to the entire metropolitan territory, "and for at least 15 days".

Schools will remain open but indoor school and extracurricular sports activities will be suspended, while the health protocol in canteens will be reinforced.

"If we observe a strong epidemic deterioration, we would be led to decide without delay on a new containment", warned the head of government.

These restrictions are driven by the arrival of new variants, which initially emerged in England and South Africa.

An "inevitable" domination

For the time being, 87 cases of contamination by the English variant have been identified, and four cases of contamination by the South African variant, according to the Ministry of Health.

An investigation carried out on all the positive PCR tests of last Thursday and Friday shows that the English variant is at this stage "responsible for 1 to 2% of the cases of Covid-19 currently diagnosed in France", specified Public Health France (SpF) .

But it is "inevitable" that this mutant virus will replace the classic Covid-19 within two to three months, warned virologist Bruno Lina, who coordinates the mapping of this variant.

Even if it does not seem intrinsically more dangerous than the classic coronavirus, it risks posing a major problem: more infected people, it is more patients who end up in hospital, with an increased risk of the system being overwhelmed. .

Although less present in Europe for the moment, the South African variant is of more concern to some scientists, who fear a reduced effectiveness of vaccines.

833 vaccination centers opened

But even without the variants, the epidemic continues to progress.

The week of January 4 to 10 is thus marked by an "increase in epidemiological indicators" after the "festive gatherings of the end of the year", according to SpF.

In an attempt to curb the epidemic before the variants gain strength, the race against time continues to vaccinate the population.

After a sluggish start and criticized, more than 389,000 people had received the first injection as of Friday, while France had 1.5 million doses this week.

The campaign will be extended on Monday to those over 75 who do not live in nursing homes, as well as to people with high-risk pathologies (chronic renal failure, cancer under treatment, etc.).

Three days before this expansion, 833 centers were "open and accessible for reservation", assured the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.

"Not unlimited stocks" and full slots

However, making an appointment, possible since Thursday morning, is sometimes akin to an obstacle course.

The official Sante.fr site, which was initially to redirect to one of the three private booking platforms, only displayed a list of vaccination locations by department on Friday.

On the platforms themselves, you sometimes have to wait several hours to hope to get an appointment.

Tired of this situation, a dozen people resolved to queue "in the cold" in front of a vaccination center in the 13th arrondissement, noted an AFP journalist.

This frustration is added to the fear of a shortage of vaccines, while delays in delivery of doses are announced.

"As soon as we knew we could get vaccinated, we wanted to make an appointment, because we know that the stocks of vaccines are not unlimited. After that, there will be no more!", exclaims André, in the queue.

"We must accelerate the pace," asked the mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo, estimating that the 10,000 doses per week planned for Paris were not enough.

In Rennes, the time slots open to get vaccinated in a concert hall are full for the next 15 days, the town hall announced in a press release: "In less than 24 hours, the service set up by the City received more than 5,000 calls, and the 1,500 vaccination slots available over the next two weeks have been booked. "

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR