5:50 am: Government tries to deal with soaring cases
– Prime Minister Jean Castex unveiled on Monday the government’s new response: no curfew on December 31 or postponement of the start of the school year, but a return of the gauges, set at 2,000 people maximum indoors and 5,000 outdoors , the “compulsory” recourse to teleworking “where possible”, the ban on standing concerts and consumption standing in bars and cafes.
– In order to limit “the impact on society of a multiplication of contaminations and contact cases, which can lead to a paralysis of public and private services”, the government must also “adjust” by the end of the week isolation rules for people who test positive and their contact cases.
– In the meantime, the Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer has indicated that students in primary classes where a positive case of Covid has been diagnosed should present at least two negative tests several days apart, against one currently, to return to school. He later clarified to AFP that it was only a “working hypothesis which is being studied in conjunction with the health authorities” and that the return to school would take place as planned on January 3, according to current rules.
– The Minister of the Interior Gerald Darmanin, for his part, asked the prefects to take measures to “dissuade gatherings” and impose the wearing of masks in the city center, in particular for New Year’s Eve.
– Regarding teleworking, the government wants to impose administrative fines on recalcitrant companies, Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne announced to the social partners during a videoconference on Tuesday. These fines will be introduced by amendment in the bill which will transform the health pass into a vaccination pass and which will be examined in committee this Wednesday in the National Assembly.
–
5.46am: A new record of contaminations on Tuesday
France recorded a new record of Covid-19 contamination on Tuesday with nearly 180,000 new cases in 24 hours, after having already crossed the threshold of 100,000 cases on Christmas Day. Specifically, 179,807 contaminations were recorded in 24 hours, in the middle of the fifth wave, according to data published Tuesday evening by Public Health France. On average, over the last seven days, 87,214 people have tested positive.
Tension continues to rise in hospitals: Tuesday, 2,110 new hospitalizations were counted (against 1,634 in the city), bringing the total number of beds occupied by Covid patients in France to 17,405. , 417 new hospitalizations were counted Tuesday, against 328 the day before, for a total of 3,416 people supported in these services specialized in the most serious cases.
–
5:45 am: Hello everyone and welcome to this live stream dedicated to the news of the Covid-19 pandemic in France and around the world.
–
