arrival of the first doses of vaccine in France, contaminations remain high

8:47 am: Managers of sports shops in the resorts consider their season over

In a letter circulated to the media, five owners of 200 sports shops located in French ski resorts believe that with the closure of the ski lifts until at least January, “their season, barely started, is now already finished “.

In this text, entitled “The mountain in bankruptcy”, the five co-signers feel powerless in the face of the “agony” of the mountain.

Guarantors of around a thousand jobs across the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, they declare: “The winter season is slipping away and losses are piling up with the passing days. […]. If only one figure should be retained, it is that of -95% of turnover over the last weekend “, that of December 19.

8:32 am: Patients in intensive care in the regions

It is in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté (87.4%), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (74.8%), in the PACA region (60.4%) and in the Grand Est region (60%) that occupancy rate of intensive care beds by Covid-19 patients are the highest. Conversely, they are lower than 40% in Corsica (22.2%), Brittany (28.4%), Normandy (35.4%) and Nouvelle-Aquitaine (36.2%), as well as -sea.

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8:17 am: Mandatory PCR test to travel to Cuba …

Travelers wishing to travel to Cuba will have to present a negative PCR test dating back less than 72 hours from January 10.

… and in the United States for travelers from the United Kingdom

All travelers on flights from the UK will be required from Monday to test negative within 72 hours to be admitted to the US.
The detection of the new strain has led since Sunday around fifty countries to suspend or restrict their air links with the United Kingdom.

7:19 am: The first doses of vaccine have arrived in France

The first doses of the vaccine developed by the American Pfizer and the German BioNTech were sent on Saturday morning shortly before 7 a.m. to the central pharmacy of the Hospitals of Paris, in the Paris suburbs.

Vaccination will begin this Sunday in France, as throughout the European Union. The first injections will take place in two establishments for the elderly, in Sevran (Seine-Saint-Denis) and Dijon.

Some 19,500 doses of the vaccine contained in 3,900 vials, according to the Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), were transported aboard a refrigerated truck which made the trip from the Pfizer plant in Puurs , in the northeast of Belgium.
At the AP-HP central pharmacy, the product was repackaged on Saturday morning before it was sent back to the long-term care unit at René-Muret hospital in Sevran and the Champmaillot geriatric center at Dijon CHU. Six bottles will be delivered in Burgundy, three in Seine-Saint-Denis.

7:13 am: New confinements in Europe

Austria, Scotland and Northern Ireland are confining their populations again on Saturday. After a Christmas truce during which the Austrians were again allowed to ski, a third general lockdown goes into effect on Saturday in the Alpine country.

Ireland and Italy, for their part, re-defined before the holidays. Draconian new restrictions (closing “non-essential” businesses, limiting or banning social contacts, etc.) come into force on Saturday in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

6:55 am: The coronavirus variant detected for the first time in France

A first case of contamination by the Covid-19 variant that appeared in the United Kingdom was detected in France on Friday. It was confirmed in Tours, with a Frenchman usually residing in the United Kingdom.

> Click here to read our article.

6:45 am: First vaccine deliveries before the start of the vaccination campaign

The French vaccination campaign against Covid-19 will begin Sunday in Sevran, near Paris, and Dijon, with elderly volunteers to be injected with the first doses of vaccine against a virus that has killed more than 62,000 people in the country .

After the United States, the United Kingdom, or more recently Switzerland, France will begin its vaccination campaign against Covid-19 two days after Christmas, like the entire European Union.

This “will begin in a small number of establishments for the elderly, and will gradually extend to the whole of France in January,” Health Minister Olivier Véran announced Tuesday evening.

The first bottles are due to arrive on French soil on Saturday, after a trip under high security.

6:39 am: No, nursing home residents will not be “forced” to be vaccinated against Covid

Vaccination against Covid-19 is not compulsory and is voluntary, including for residents of nursing homes. They can freely give their consent or not – or failing that, a trusted person can decide for them.

6:37 am: Dover-Calais link: the situation resolved on Saturday

More and more trucks from the English coasts, where they have been stuck since Monday, landed in Calais on Friday, according to port management, which predicts a situation “completely resolved” Saturday in the day.

“Yesterday (Thursday, Editor’s note), we recorded a traffic of 1,000 heavy goods vehicles from Dover (United Kingdom)”, against “1,400 heavy goods vehicles at 6 p.m.” on Friday, said the deputy managing director of the company which operates the ports of Calais and Boulogne-sur-Mer, Benoît Rochet. He estimated a little earlier that “at this rate, the situation should be completely resolved tomorrow (Saturday, Editor’s note) during the day”.

Exceptionally, the port remains open and the ferry companies are working on Christmas Day, taking vehicles only in the Dover-Calais direction.

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6:35 am: Delivery of the vaccine, first injections on Sunday, variants of the coronavirus in the United Kingdom and in South Africa, daily contaminations on the rise: follow the evolutions of the pandemic in France and in the world this Saturday, December 26.

6:30 a.m .: Hello everyone, welcome to this live broadcast concerning the coronavirus pandemic.

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