From Paris
A Health Defense Council followed by a Council of Ministers under the growing threat of a viral avalanche led this Monday to new measures to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. All the contamination figures reached absolute records. On Saturday, December 24, for the first time since the outbreak of the health crisis, France exceeded the barrier of one hundred thousand cases of covid in 24 hours, reaching 104,611 contaminations and thus doubling the percentages of three weeks ago. The health outlook was particularly complicated in Paris, where the incidence rate reached 1814 per 100,000 inhabitants between December 17 and 23. In just seven days the rise of the virus increased by ninety percent. This is equivalent to 2.5 times more than the average of 712.5 cases per 100,000 inhabitants that the city had and is 35 times higher than the alert ceiling of fifty cases set by the government. If this rate is maintained, infectologists predict that by mid-January a percentage of 200,000 contaminations per day will be reached. In turn, the scientific council that advises the government fears that the effects of the Omicron variant (1980 cases) will lead to a “disorganization of certain essential services” among which are “food distribution, security, energy, transport, communications and health ”from January.
With this extreme situation in between, the Executive implemented new measures without including in these a new confinement, curfews or the postponement of the resumption of classes after the Christmas holidays and the end of the year. The government revalidated its central strategy, that is, injecting a new dose of available vaccines, while adopting a series of additional restrictions. French Prime Minister Jean Castex said that “this is all like a movie that never ends.” Then, Castex announced that the period between the second and third doses of the vaccine would go to three months from this Tuesday, December 28 (before it was six months, then it went to five and later to 4). He also indicated that large gatherings would be limited to two thousand people inside the premises and five thousand outside, that concerts and consumption standing up in bars and restaurants were prohibited, as well as the consumption of food in cinemas, theaters, public transport. and sports halls. These regulations will remain in force for a period of three weeks while another supplementary one will be in force from January. This is teleworking, which will be mandatory at least “three days a week.” As for the night of December 31, there were, as last year, no specific limitations or curfew, but rather “recommendations” that range from covid tests, strict respect for barrier gestures or ventilation of premises and rooms. . Castex called to apply “common sense in all measures that refer to our responsibility.”
The vaccine continues to be the cornerstone of the Executive’s anti-covid device to contain the fifth wave. It is a “key and decisive” element, according to the authorities. In this sense, the council of ministers met with the goal of expediting a bill that aims to transform the health pass into another called “vaccine pass.” The main provision of this law is that it will no longer be enough to present a negative test to enter public places, but it will become imperative that the person be vaccinated, hence the name “vaccine pass”. The new provision is expected to come into force during the second half of January. The French Executive travels through a very thin border on the sides of which is the sanitary abyss or the electoral sanction. The presidential elections are very close (April 2022) and the government and the presidency know that they will be judged within an insurmountable paradox: if you confine and close the lock too much, society will turn against both. If an even greater health crisis breaks out, the Executive and the Presidential Palace will also be questioned. The great cat of the virus plays with all time at the same time as if health and politics were a mouse in its claws.
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