Covid-19: France passes the milestone of 200,000 cases in 24 hours, the vaccine pass to the Assembly
The French Minister of Health Olivier Véran, at the Élysée Palace in Paris, on December 1, 2021. REUTERS - SARAH MEYSSONNIER
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
France crossed this Wednesday, December 29, for the first time, the threshold of 200,000 cases of Covid-19 contamination in 24 hours.
The Minister of Health Olivier Véran speaks of a "
tidal wave
".
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"
Figures that make you dizzy,
" said Olivier Véran before the National Assembly on Wednesday.
More than 208,000 new cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the last 24 hours on French territory.
"
We are facing two enemies
", underlined the minister: the Delta variant, which has not said its last word, as well as "
the Omicron variant, and here I will no longer speak of vague concerning Omicron, given the figures that we have been recording for a few days in our country.
I would tend to speak of a tidal wave.
"
“
24 hours a day, day and night, every second in our country, more than two French people are diagnosed positive for the coronavirus,
continued the minister, who fears an explosion in hospitalizations.
We have never experienced such a situation.
It's everywhere.
In all territories, in all environments and the virus circulates very quickly.
"
More than a million positive French people
"
We are probably this [Wednesday] evening, counting the cases today, to a million French people who must be positive and who are diagnosed as such, to which must be added a certain number of asymptomatic people who are not tested, so probably more than a million French people
”, added Olivier Véran.
Tuesday evening, December 28, the body Public Health France had announced nearly 180,000 cases in 24 hours, which was already a record.
►
Read also: Covid-19 in France: the government authorizes mass distribution to sell self-tests
Faced with the outbreak of contaminations, "
10% of the French population is in contact
" and the unvaccinated have "
little chance of passing between the drops, the virus circulates too much
", estimated the minister, the deep voice, who hopes to convince the “
indifferent
”
unvaccinated
- “
often young people
” saying to themselves: “
I have no time, I am living my life
” - to adopt the vaccination pass.
Monday evening, Olivier Véran had warned that France could "
reach more than 250,000
cases per day by the beginning of January
".
The new outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic has notably caused several outbreaks of contamination in French prisons.
"Vaccination pass": the government accelerates its schedule
Initially scheduled for application at the end of January, the bill providing for transforming the health pass into a
vaccination pass
was examined this Wednesday by the law commission at the Palais Bourbon, fifteen days before its expected entry into force.
Olivier Véran defended the text, arousing little opposition, except from the group France rebellious (LFI), whose president Mathilde Panot strongly criticized the project.
A new attack on freedoms, according to her.
Mr. Minister, we will not give in to your blackmail which consists in opposing, in all circumstances, the protection of health and the safeguard of freedoms.
Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group at the National Assembly
Aurélien Devernoix
Accusations of infringements of freedoms which did not please the Minister of Health.
Olivier Véran has drawn up a comparative table of the health measures currently taken in Europe, to demonstrate the moderation of the French government.
Let us look at what is happening abroad when you talk to us about freedom, Madam Deputy, and when you say that in the past we are cutting corners on the freedoms of the French.
Netherlands: containment.
Austria: containment.
Germany: closed door for all sporting events, health pass, vaccination pass and gauge in some Länder.
Olivier Véran, Minister of Health
Aurélien Devernoix
The text on the vaccination pass will then be discussed in the hemicycle from Monday and in the Senate from Wednesday January 5 for entry into force scheduled for January 15.
(With
AFP
)
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