After several months without speaking, Emmanuel Macron will speak to the French on Tuesday, November 9 at 8 p.m. If the President of the Republic will obviously take stock of the resumption of the coronavirus epidemic, he should also discuss future reforms and economic recovery.
In his last speech, on July 12, Emmanuel Macron announced the obligation to vaccinate caregivers, the extension of the health pass and the end of free PCR tests. This time, the Head of State could evoke the third dose, the wearing of the mask or the pension reform. A few days before his speech, 20 minutes make the point.
Resumption of the epidemic
During his speech, which will use the “same format” than the previous one, Emmanuel Macron will take stock of the health situation, while the epidemic is on the rise again throughout France. “Europe has once again become the epicenter of the epidemic” with “sometimes spectacular recoveries (…) In France, we are seeing a recovery, slight at this stage but certain”, warned the government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, Friday. In the last 24 hours, 8,998 new cases have been recorded, against 4,000 on average in early October, according to figures from Public Health France, published on Friday. The positivity rate has reached 2.4% over the last seven days, against 1.9% last week.
Another indicator: the incidence rate. The latter, which reports the number of new cases to the entire population, was already up 12% the week of October 25. “This incidence rate is on the rise for the third consecutive week”, explains Nicolas Methy, epidemiologist at Public Health France. Finally, the reproduction rate, which measures the average number of secondary cases caused by a single infected person, has been “above 1” for three weeks as well.
Vaccination and third dose
To stop the epidemic, the government is certainly counting on mass vaccination, but also on the third dose. If France is ahead of many of its neighbors, with nearly 75% of its population having received a complete vaccination schedule, the pace of the summer has fallen. As for the third dose – which concerns people over 65, people at risk such as obese or diabetics, immunocompromised people and their entourage and nursing staff – only 3.2 million French people out of 6.8 eligible received the injection, or 45% of French people concerned, according to figures from Public Health France, published Thursday.
Emmanuel Macron will he go even further and make the booster dose mandatory for all vaccinated people over 18 years of age? For the moment, the executive seems to favor the conditioning of the health pass to a third dose of vaccine. On Friday in Montpellier, Prime Minister Jean Castex said that the executive was thinking about this track “probably more than the track of compulsory vaccination for those over 65”.
Wearing the mask
From Monday, the mask will be mandatory again in primary schools in 39 departments, “where the incidence rate has unfortunately stabilized above 50 per 100,000 inhabitants,” said Gabriel Attal, Wednesday at the from the Council of Ministers. By counting the departments where the mask was still compulsory in schools, now 57 metropolitan departments and four overseas territories (Réunion, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Guyana) are concerned. If the epidemic situation continues to deteriorate, other departments could be affected by this measure.
And schoolchildren are not the only ones affected. In some departments, such as Hérault, wearing a mask is no longer compulsory in establishments requiring a health pass, such as cinemas, shopping centers or museums. But this measure could soon be lifted by the government.
Reforms and economic recovery
If the coronavirus should be the major subject of the speech of Emmanuel Macron, the Head of State will also evoke the economic recovery and “the reforms carried out in the country”, confirmed Gabriel Attal, Friday, without giving more of details. The head of state should address the pension reform, suspended at the start of the epidemic, which must be relaunched as soon as “sanitary conditions are met”.
On July 12, during his last speech, Emmanuel Macron confirmed the implementation of the unemployment insurance reform, announced the France 2030 plan and “a commitment income” for young people, which became a “contract on Tuesday”. commitment ”.