The government does not rule out going “beyond” the restrictive measures in force in the event of “a very strong resumption of the epidemic linked to the Omicron variant,” government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Tuesday.
"We have already announced measures on December 31 (...) but if we see that there is a very strong resumption of the epidemic linked to the Omicron variant, we could obviously go beyond", he said. indicated on France 2.
According to the government spokesperson, France is entering "a period of turbulence with Omicron", noting that this variant of the coronavirus is reflected in the United Kingdom by "a deluge of contaminations".
"The Omicron variant is clearly more contagious than anything we have known: it develops 70% faster than the previous variants and, every two to three days, the number of cases doubles", underlined Gabriel Attal, in building on the "absolutely astounding progress" already observed in the United Kingdom.
"The question mark is the proportion of serious cases that require hospitalization," he said.
Read alsoVariant Omicron: will vaccination be enough in the face of the surge?
Sticking to his line of never excluding anything "in principle", including a re-containment as in the Netherlands, Mr. Attal nevertheless argued that the vaccination booster was "effective against the Omicron variant", welcoming that France crosses Tuesday "the 20 million mark" of people having received a booster dose "with four days ahead of the objective which had been set by Olivier Véran".
The health pass made it possible to have "ten to fifteen million more vaccinated," said Gabriel Attal, also calling again the French to be cautious during the end of the year celebrations.
Claimed by the LR candidate in the presidential election Valérie Pécresse, the one week extension of the school holidays is not "at all a preferred hypothesis" by the government which only considers it as a "last resort", a he also clarified.
Asked about a possible postponement of the presidential election, scheduled for April 10 and 24, 2022, he firmly refuted this hypothesis, assuring that the ballot would be held “in April”, recalling that “local elections” had already taken place during the epidemic.
Postponing the presidential election is "neither on the table, nor under the table, nor in the cupboard next to the table," he insisted.
What about the health pass in business?
The government will decide, or not, to include the corporate health pass in the text on the vaccination pass after meeting local elected officials and parliamentary groups on Tuesday afternoon, also indicated Gabriel Attal.
"We are going to talk about it today, with local elected officials, with parliamentary groups", and "we will make a decision at the end of whether or not to put it in the text of the law" transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass, a continued the spokesperson, referring to this text that the government wants to see adopted by the end of January.
"Then there will be a parliamentary discussion anyway."
Read also What if, tomorrow, you had to present a health pass in your company?
He recalled that the consultations carried out on Monday between the Minister of Labor Elisabeth Borne and the social partners, "who are not enthusiastic" about a move to work, made it possible to identify "a form of consensus around the need for teleworking", but that there is "on the other hand not (was) really of consensus around a health pass in company".
He nevertheless underlined the interest of such a measure: “the objective is to encourage as much as possible for vaccination because we can still see that it is our best tool in the face of the progression of the disease. 'epidemic,' he argued.
Elisabeth Borne told AFP on Monday after consultations with the social partners that "nothing has been done at this stage", specifying that the measure "would require a legislative provision".
Regarding the transformation of the health pass into a vaccination pass, Prime Minister Jean Castex receives on Tuesday representatives of local elected officials and the presidents of parliamentary groups to "look with them how can we move forward as quickly as possible" , with a view to a “rapid” entry into force, underlined Gabriel Attal.