France is seeing a “tsunami” of COVID-19 infections, with 208,000 circumstances reported through the previous 24 hours on Wednesday, a brand new nationwide and European document, Well being Minister Olivier Veran has informed lawmakers.
France has been breaking an infection data repeatedly through the previous few days, with Tuesday’s 180,000 circumstances already the very best for a rustic in Europe, in line with knowledge on Covidtracker.fr.
“Because of this 24 hours a day, day and night time, each second in our nation, two French individuals are recognized constructive,” Veran mentioned. “We now have by no means skilled such a state of affairs,” he mentioned, describing the rise in circumstances as “dizzying”.
World COVID-19 infections have hit document highs through the previous seven days, knowledge from the Reuters and AFP information businesses confirmed on Wednesday, as the brand new Omicron variant spreads quickly, preserving many employees at dwelling and overwhelming testing centres.
The state of affairs in French hospitals was already worrying due to the Delta variant, Veran mentioned, with Omicron but to have an effect, one thing he mentioned would ultimately occur.
“We now have two enemies,” he mentioned, referring to the 2 principal variants. “As for Omicron, I might not speak about a wave. It is a groundswell, the place a number of waves mix to kind one large wave,” he mentioned.
The minister had warned on Monday that France might attain greater than 250,000 day by day COVID circumstances by the start of January, as per week of unrestricted Christmas events and household get-togethers gas the unfold of the illness.
After a cupboard assembly to debate the disaster on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex introduced a number of measures to attempt to comprise the epidemic, however shied away from the mass closures or lockdowns which have been reintroduced in different EU nations such because the Netherlands.
A few of the new restrictions, similar to a ban on consuming on high-speed trains or standing up in cafes and bars, had been denounced by critics and political opponents as being too restricted to be efficient.
The federal government introduced on Wednesday that the nation’s roughly 1,600 nightclubs would stay closed for an extra three weeks after they had been ordered shut on December 6.
Inside Minister Gerald Darmanin has additionally inspired native officers to restrict public New 12 months’s Eve gatherings, particularly by requiring face masks outside and stepping up police patrols to implement a ban on public alcohol consumption for the night time.
Stress on hospitals
Every day hospital admissions for COVID in France are averaging above 1,000 a day, nonetheless effectively under the height of three,500 through the first wave in April 2020 or practically 3,000 within the second wave in November final yr.
However the exponential progress in case numbers is inflicting alarm.
The French Federation of Hospitals mentioned on Tuesday that “further measures to be able to shield public hospitals are vital to be able to keep away from saturating well being providers and emergency wards which can inevitably result in extra cancelled operations”.
Many hospitals, significantly these within the hotspots of France and the southern Mediterranean coast, are already cancelling non-essential operations because of the surge in COVID admissions, most of that are unvaccinated individuals.
Regardless of France having one of many highest vaccination charges on the earth, with 90 % of the eligible inhabitants having had eventually one dose, Veran mentioned that there have been nonetheless 5 million unvaccinated people who find themselves sufficiently old to get the jabs.
The federal government is staking its technique on a brand new legislation that shall be debated in parliament beginning Wednesday that might require residents to point out proof of vaccination to be able to enter eating places, cinemas, museums and different public venues.
The brand new “vaccine cross” system will exchange the earlier “well being cross”, which might be obtained by offering a current unfavorable COVID check within the absence of vaccination.
Al Jazeera’s Natacha Butler, reporting from Paris, mentioned there can be quite a lot of opposition to the transfer.
“Some individuals say that’s a controversial measure,” she mentioned.
“However what the federal government is saying is that [unvaccinated people] are actually those who usually find yourself in hospital, and this can be a approach of making an attempt to inspire them to go and get jabbed.”