New restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 in France came into force on Sunday.
According to Olivier Véran, a new wave is to be feared but he hopes "to be able to avoid it".
In Europe, the circulation of new variants continues to be of concern.
As vaccine deliveries lag behind, Germany has threatened the labs with legal action.
Follow our live.
THE ESSENTIAL
The new health restrictions, decided by the Defense Council, have come into force in France.
Its borders are now closed to countries outside the European Union, "unless there is a compelling reason", and non-food shopping centers of more than 20,000 m2 have also closed.
In an interview with the
Journal du Dimanche
, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, justified the decision of the executive not to impose a third confinement and said he hoped "to be able to avoid" a third wave of Covid-19 in France.
According to the latest report from the health authorities, epidemic circulation remains high, as does the pressure on the hospital system, with more than 27,000 hospitalized patients.
In the rest of Europe, the circulation of these new variants, more contagious than the dominant strain, continues to worry.
Faced with delays in the delivery of vaccines, Germany has threatened the laboratories with legal action.
Follow our live
Information to remember:
New restrictions aimed at curbing the epidemic in France have come into force
75,802 dead in France, hospital pressure remains strong
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, says he hopes "to be able to avoid" a new wave
Germany threatens legal action laboratories against vaccine delays
New restrictions in France
France closes, from Sunday, its borders to countries outside the European Union, "unless there is a compelling reason", in an attempt to curb the spread of the epidemic.
At the same time, the government decided to close non-food shopping centers of more than 20,000 m2 on Sunday and to strengthen attendance gauges in all supermarkets.
While restaurants and bars have been closed in the country since the end of October, 24 illegal restaurants discovered in Paris on Thursday and Friday will be subject to a 15-day administrative closure.
Olivier Véran hopes "to be able to avoid" a new wave
A new wave of the Covid-19 epidemic is to be feared, in particular because of the possible effects of the English variant, but "maybe we can avoid it", hopes Sunday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, in an interview with the
JDD
, noting "a slight deceleration" of the contaminations.
When the decision not to reconfine "was taken Friday in the defense council, the incidence, that is to say the number of new daily cases, had increased little for four days. This is still the case today. hui ", underlines the minister.
In addition, the results of the second flash survey on variants, particularly English, which the minister received on Friday, "show that its circulation is increasing - by 50% every week - but less intensely than abroad. where increases of 70 to 100% have been noted ".
This means that "the danger we face is possible, even probable. But it is not certain," explains Olivier Véran, justifying the executive's decision not to impose a third confinement at this stage.
"The slight deceleration of the contaminations can allow us to observe, during a few days, what will happen".
"Everything suggests that a new wave could emerge because of the variant; but perhaps we can avoid it thanks to the measures that we decided early, and that the French respect", continues the Minister of Health, for whom "the idea is to save time, to limit damage".
But, he adds, "if the incidence were to rise again, we would not hesitate. We never said that we would not reconfine in the next fortnight if necessary".
More than 27,000 hospitalized patients in France
The number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients remains at a high level, around 27,000, as well as that of patients in intensive care (around 3,000), according to figures released on Saturday by the French public health agency.
On Saturday, 27,242 people were hospitalized due to Covid, including 3,103 in intensive care (the services reserved for the most seriously ill patients), levels similar to the day before (27,270 and 3,120).
Three weeks earlier, on January 9, there were approximately 24,000 hospitalized Covid patients, including 2,600 in shifts.
On average, over the last 7 days, around 1,600 new Covid patients are hospitalized every day in France, including 250 in shifts.
In addition, 242 deaths have been recorded in hospital in 24 hours, for a total of more than 75,000 deaths since the start of the epidemic.
The health agency reports 24,392 new contaminations, and a positive test rate of 6.9% against 7% the day before.
Four weeks after the start of vaccination in France, nearly 1.45 million people received at least one dose of the vaccine.
Among them, just over 41,000 have already received the two doses, according to Public Health France.
CORONAVIRUS ESSENTIALS
> What place for teleworking after the coronavirus?
> Are adolescents vectors of contamination?
> Advice from a psychotherapist to get through this period as well as possible
> How does "CleanCovid", the anti-coronavirus lamp work
> How will the citizens' committee responsible for monitoring vaccination work?
Vaccine delays: Germany threatens legal action laboratories
The German government threatened Sunday with legal action against laboratories "failing to meet their obligations" to deliver vaccines to the European Union, amid rising tensions over delays by Britain's AstraZeneca.
"If it turns out that companies have not respected their obligations, we will have to decide on legal consequences", threatened the German Minister of the Economy, Peter Altmaier, in an interview with the German daily Die Welt.
"No company can favor another country over the EU after the fact," he added.
The tone has risen in recent weeks between European leaders and the British laboratory AstraZeneca, which has accumulated delays in deliveries of its anti-Covid vaccine.
The group explained that it could only deliver "a quarter" of the doses initially promised to the EU in the first quarter, showing a "drop in yields" in a European factory.
The EU implicitly accuses AstraZeneca of having favored Great Britain in the delivery of its vaccines, to the detriment of its contractual obligations with Brussels.
More than 2.2 million deaths worldwide
The pandemic has killed more than 2.2 million people worldwide since the end of December 2019, according to an assessment established by AFP from official sources, Saturday at 11 a.m. GMT.
More than 102 million cases of infection have been diagnosed.
The United States is the country with the most deaths (436,810), followed by Brazil (222,666), Mexico (156,579), India (154,147) and the United Kingdom (104,371).