The day after a speech related to the meeting between the Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and representatives of associations of local elected officials, Gabriel Attal once again spoke on the subject of the Covid-19 epidemic , this Wednesday noon, at the end of the Council of Ministers.
It was also to be the last of the year 2021, "but an exceptional Council of Ministers will be held next Monday, in particular to examine the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass", he recalled.
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Encouraging data in South Africa and the United Kingdom
To begin with, Gabriel Attal took stock of the current health situation.
"We are reaching absolutely unprecedented levels of incidence in France" with a rate which "greatly exceeds 500 per 100,000 inhabitants".
"The hospital is holding, but we must continue to help it hold", summarized the spokesperson, who assures that the situation is monitored "hour by hour".
The majority Omicron variant "between Christmas and New Year"
The Omicron variant is spreading "at a very rapid pace" in France and it could become the majority between Christmas and New Year, said government spokesman Gabriel Attal, for whom the epidemic could "start again with a bang".
The variant “is gradually becoming the majority in several regions of our country, particularly in Île-de-France, and in Paris more particularly.
It should be soon at the national level, probably between Christmas and the New Year ”, warned the spokesperson at the end of the Council of Ministers.
“Where we were reaching the peak of Delta, we are experiencing the start of an Omicron wave,” he summed up.
Accelerating vaccination
This summary of the health situation was an opportunity to recall the need for the vaccine and the booster, "very effective, including against the variant", according to Gabriel Attal.
"For those over 60, there is six times less risk of having a severe form after the recall than before".
"We are now opening vaccination to 5-11 year olds," repeated the government spokesperson, after a first officialization by Olivier Véran on Wednesday morning.
"The returns we have, especially from the United States where several million children have been vaccinated, show a positive benefit-risk balance," he explained.
From a logistical point of view, "several million pediatric doses" "have been ordered and more than a million have been delivered".
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The boost given by the government on vaccination is "necessary", given that "the unvaccinated represent less than 10% of the population but more than half of the sick in the hospital", argued Gabriel Attal .
More than 20 million booster doses have been distributed, a goal initially set for Christmas but reached "four days in advance", he said.
In addition, "the number of appointments for first-time injections has doubled" since the announcement of Jean Castex, last Friday, to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass.
"We are fully mobilized to vaccinate morning, noon and evening", summarized Gabriel Attal, ensuring that the government was "doing everything" so that the French who wish can have their recall in the coming days.
"Two million additional slots" will also be offered "between now and the end of the year," assured the spokesperson.
The "consensus" around the vaccination pass
According to the government spokesperson, the vaccination pass is harvesting "a very broad consensus, including opposition groups who were very strongly opposed to the health pass".
"We assume to impose the constraints mainly on those" who refuse the vaccine, he justified.
"Our strategy is clear: to choose the vaccine".
Gabriel Attal also called on the French "to be cautious in the days and weeks to come", especially for the holidays, despite "the weariness" that many may feel.
New restrictions soon?
"If we considered that additional braking measures were necessary, we would have already announced them to the French", wanted to reassure the government spokesperson at the end of the Council of Ministers this Wednesday noon, recalling that some had already been taken , especially with the closing of nightclubs or the cancellation of vows in town halls for January.
However, he added that "the health situation (would) be reassessed on Monday", specifying that he did not yet know if it would be within the framework of the Council of Ministers or of a Defense Council.
The presidential election maintained
Faced with "debates in the press" in recent days, "the President of the Republic returned to this subject during the Council of Ministers and indicated very clearly that the deadlines in our country would be maintained because it is of the democratic life of our country, ”said the spokesperson, less than four months before the presidential election.
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No postponement of the presidential election of April 2022 is "neither on the table, nor under the table, nor in the cupboard next to the table", he insisted, specifying that he could there must be "obviously work on the organization of the election as we have done in each of the elections that have been held" in recent months in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic.
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