At the end of a Health Defense Council on Friday, December 17, the Prime Minister urged the French to avoid gatherings as much as possible, which could promote the already overwhelming spread of the Omicron variant of Sars-Cov-2. For the same reason, he called on the mayors of France to “to give up the organization of large gatherings on the public highway, in particular the fireworks or the concerts”.
In the picture he painted of the current epidemic wave, which could be aggravated by the very rapid circulation of the new variant known as Omicron, Jean Castex laid great emphasis on the gatherings, examples of which in Norway and Denmark have shown that ‘they could generate formidable clusters. He called on the French in particular to limit the number of people participating in traditional end-of-year celebrations: “Whether at home”, detailed the Prime Minister, “in a restaurant, a party hall or a bar, let’s avoid big parties, large gatherings”.
In addition to what falls under the recommendation, Jean Castex has more concretely announced that “the prefects will prohibit wild gatherings, the consumption of alcohol on the public highway”, and that they will invite the municipalities to abandon the traditional events that “result in high concentrations, and do not allow distancing, or respect for barrier gestures”.
For the moments of celebration, or the inevitable family gatherings during this period, the Prime Minister also invited the respect of barrier gestures, ventilation and screening, while recalling that the French “have been able to thwart the forecasts in the past”.