Prime Minister Jean Castex held a new press briefing this Thursday evening, in order to take stock of the health situation and unveil new measures to try to better control the evolution of the epidemic and try, again and again, to '' avoid national re-containment.
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No "exponential rise in the epidemic"
The coronavirus epidemic is still circulating strongly in the country.
The presence of the variants on the territory continues to cause great concern on the part of the authorities.
"The circulation of the virus has accelerated over the past two weeks," explains Jean Castex.
By itself, the so-called “English” variant now represents more than 60% of contaminations in the country.
Over the last seven days, the number of daily contaminations increased by 1.4% against 14% last week, letting the Prime Minister say that the country is not facing "an exponential increase in the epidemic".
Above all, Jean Castex insists once again on the very strong tension which reigns within hospitals, and which "weighs enormously on our caregivers".
Three new departments in enhanced vigilance
The threat had hovered over 20 French departments for a week.
They were then placed under reinforced surveillance by the government, where the epidemic was most threatening.
"In these twenty departments, the virus has continued to progress," regrets Jean Castex.
No department leaves this particular regime this Thursday evening.
On the contrary, three new ones complete this list: the Aisne, the Aube and the Hautes-Alpes.
The complete list of departments placed under health surveillance is therefore as follows:
In Hauts-de-France: Pas-de-Calais, Nord, Somme and Oise
In Île-de-France, the eight departments are concerned.
In Paca: the Alpes-Maritimes, the Bouches-du-Rhône and the Var.
In the Grand-Est region: Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle are more particularly affected.
There are also Drôme, Eure-et-Loire and Rhône.
And so the three new ones, Aisne, Aube and Hautes-Alpes
The Pas-de-Calais reconfined, Paris spared
Of the 20 departments initially placed in vigilance, only one is subject to tightening of health measures.
As expected, this is Pas-de-Calais.
There, the government has indeed decided to institute a partial reconfinement, the weekend.
The measurement will begin at 8 a.m. on Saturday.
Non-food stores with an area of more than 5,000 m2 will have to close their doors.
And the department will be given priority delivery of new doses of vaccine.
Paris and the Ile-de-France region, although hard hit by the epidemic, does not change.
The case of the capital has sparked a lively debate in recent days between the executive and the mayor of Paris, the latter marking its opposition to the principle of reconfinement.
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Confinement on weekends: why would Ile-de-France be spared but not Pas-de-Calais?
Restrictions requested from prefects
In these 23 departments, the government has decided to close non-food shopping centers with an area of more than 10,000 m2.
Wearing a mask will be made compulsory in all urban areas.
The executive also asks the prefects to stop new restrictions if necessary.
This could be, for example, the ban on the sale of alcohol or the ban on demonstrations that would present “a proven risk”.
To the French, the Prime Minister asks to exercise the greatest caution in order to limit contamination.
He also asked citizens residing in the most affected departments not to go to other departments.
20 million French people vaccinated in mid-May
While the doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine are struggling to get out of the fridges, the government hopes to further accelerate the pace of injections.
To achieve this, the executive is counting in particular on the 22 million doses that the country must receive in March-April.
He also decided to allow pharmacists to themselves bite French people with access to the vaccine.
And this from March 15th.
Finally, the executive intends to speed up vaccination this weekend.
“135,000 doses will be allocated from this evening” in the areas most at risk, said Olivier Véran.
The Prime Minister also specified the next stage of the vaccination schedule, while all people aged 50 to 74 can be vaccinated from mid-April.
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"We have had confirmation of the excellent news announced to us by Professor Fischer," adds the Prime Minister.
The high authority said on Monday that people over 65 are also eligible as well as people with pathologies that can lead to serious forms, ”he recalls, assuring that there is no reason to fear this vaccine.
The Prime Minister says he is targeting the 20 million French people vaccinated in mid-May and 30 million French people by the summer, 2/3 of whom are over 18 years old.
Towards an easing of visiting rights in nursing homes
“3.2 million people have already been vaccinated, of which 1.8 have already received their two doses,” explains Jean Castex, adding that these citizens who have had access to vaccines are the people most vulnerable to the virus. We have taken a decisive but major step, that of the nursing homes. Over 80% of residents received a first injection. We have thus taken a crucial step, he reassures, evoking an undeniable success opening the way to an adaptation to the right of access. The Prime Minister received a report from the High Council of Public Health to work in this direction. He solemnly calls on nursing staff to go and get vaccinated.