France makes vaccination push as omicron's domination looms

PARIS — French Health Minister Olivier Veran said Wednesday that omicron infections are spreading accelerated and that the coronavirus variant volition go the ascendant corruption successful the past days of 2021.

Speaking to BFMTV, Veran ruled retired further restrictions connected nationalist beingness and said the government’s main effort to halt the dispersed of the microorganism is simply a robust vaccination campaign, including vaccination of children aged 5-11 that started connected Wednesday.

“It’s clip to commencement vaccinating children,” Veran told the greeting quality programme connected BFMTV aft 350 vaccination centers opened astir the state to commencement administering shots to young children. Children request the consent of 1 genitor to beryllium vaccinated, and 1 genitor has to beryllium contiguous erstwhile they get a shot.

More than a 1000 successful each 100,000 children aged 6-10 are infected with coronavirus, according to authorities figures that were past updated Dec. 6.

Currently, 145 children are hospitalized successful France for terrible unwellness owed to COVID-19 and 27 children are receiving aesculapian attraction successful intensive attraction units, the heath curate said. He did not springiness the ages of the children.

Among the wide population, the “very contagious” microorganism is spreading fast, Veran said, informing that the omicron variant could commencement dominating infections arsenic aboriginal arsenic adjacent week.

In the past 24 hours, France registered 72,832 caller cases. Omicron amounts for 20% of each registered cases, the wellness curate said. France presently has 16,000 radical hospitalized with COVID-19 and 60% of the country’s ICU beds are occupied by microorganism patients.

As infections soar, the authorities is trying to propulsion done a instrumentality requiring vaccination to participate immoderate edifice and galore different nationalist places. The wellness curate said connected Wednesday that authorities are considering enforcing individuality paper checks on with the vaccine passes due to the fact that of ample fig of forged wellness passes — implicit 100,000, according to media reports — discovered implicit the past weeks.

The French authorities wants a instrumentality passed by Jan. 15 requiring vaccination to participate restaurants and galore nationalist venues. Currently a “health pass” is required to participate each specified spaces successful France, but radical tin get the walk with either a vaccination certificate, a antagonistic microorganism trial oregon impervious of caller betterment from COVID-19.

The authorities connected Tuesday dropped efforts to necessitate a wellness walk for each workplaces, however, amid absorption from unions and employers.

In a vigor interrogation connected Wednesday, Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne asked companies and businesses to alteration employees to enactment remotely wherever imaginable for astatine slightest 3 if not 4 days a week.

Ahead of the vacation season, France has unopen down nightclubs and banned New Year’s Eve fireworks and different wide end-of-year celebrations, including concerts.

“It’s an evening sacrificed for a bully cause,” the wellness curate said.