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. -it indicated on France 2.
Vaccination “effective against the Omicron variant”
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 contamination”. “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.
Sticking to his line of never excluding anything “in principle”, including a re-containment as in the Netherlands, Gabriel 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 “four days ahead of the target which had been set by (the Minister of Health) Olivier Véran”.
No extension of school holidays
The health pass made it possible to have “ten to 15 million more vaccinated”, underlined Gabriel Attal, also calling again the French to be cautious during the end of 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 privileged 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.
The corporate health pass could be included in the text on the vaccination pass
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, its spokesperson Gabriel Attal said. “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 he indicated on France 2, with reference to this text that the government wishes to see adopted by the end of January.