France has been breaking repeatedly in recent days records pandemic. After more than 180,000 cases on Tuesday, 208,000 more were infected on Wednesday. “I would no longer call Omikron a wave, but a tsunami,” quotes French Minister of Health Olivier Véran station FRANCE24.
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About ten percent of the French population was in contact with someone infected with the covid, Véran said, according to which vaccination probably did not provide sufficient protection. “The circulation of the virus is too intense,” the minister said. Veran also warned that France could record more than 250,000 cases a day by the beginning of January.
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The rate of spread of the disease is so high that, according to Veran, coronavirus in France is detected on average in two people every second. According to him, however, the situation is not such that the omicron variant, which spreads faster but has milder manifestations, has a major impact on French hospitals.
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The delta variant is causing more problems and, according to the French minister, the flu epidemic, which he said will be large this winter, will also bring other problems. According to Véran, the delta variant is no longer much talked about, but the delta “has definitely not said its last word yet”. In some regions, its incidence is declining, but in others it is growing.
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The minister also described cases from hospitals where people who had narrowly escaped death continued to refuse to exist, insult and attack paramedics or take off their oxygen masks because they considered the disease to be a government conspiracy.
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“I do not say it as a threat, I am a doctor and I treat all patients the same. But there is only a small chance that you will be able to run through the raindrops, the spread of the virus is already too strong and the most susceptible to the virus infection are unvaccinated people, “said Véran. Among those hospitalized in intensive care units are people who have had a booster dose, but 80 percent of ICU patients are immunocompromised, according to the health minister.
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5th wave of Covid-19: “There is little chance that you will pass between the drops this time”
Olivier Véran is aimed at non-vaccinated people ⤵ pic.twitter.com/nfnS8s1MVq
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) December 29, 2021
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Five million people have not yet been vaccinated in France, and Véran places them in three categories. Among them are people who live in remote areas and do not have access to information or vaccinations. The second group are the classic vaccine refusers, who often deny the existence of covid. The third group is mainly young people who live as before and covid basically ignore.
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According to Véran, a vaccine passport is being targeted at the third group, which could replace the current covid passport in France, which also included the possibility of testing. The French government and parliament are now negotiating the introduction of the new document.
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According to FranceTVInfo, there is a variant in the game where a vaccination pass would be mandatory for children from the age of twelve. If the bill is passed, “from January 15, children from the age of 12 will be required to present a vaccination passport for access to leisure activities, restaurants, bars, fairs, seminars and also for interregional travel.” quotes station Vérana.
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However, the topic in France at the moment is not only the pandemic but also the upcoming presidential election. Thus, the candidates for the French head of state begin their campaigns. According to current measures, there can be a maximum of two thousand people indoors, with the exception of political assemblies. A few months before the first round of the presidential election, each party has the choice of leading by example or invoking the exception.
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For example, the party of far-right candidate Marine Le Pen’s National Association (formerly the National Front) said it would not be curtailed by anti-epidemic measures. The grand assembly scheduled for January 15 in Reims will take place without restriction. The local exhibition center is according to the station France Blue up to three thousand people can fit.
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According to party spokesman Sébastien Chenu, the constitution allows for “unrestricted political meetings”. “But this does not prevent them from taking a number of measures,” Chenu added in an interview with Evropa 1. The spokesman did not say specific measures, but mentioned, for example, the rules of social distance. The far-left candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon also refused to limit the numbers at the start of his campaign.
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