The government seems less and less optimistic about the epidemic situation in the country. For the government spokesperson, “the observation is clear: our epidemic situation is deteriorating very markedly,” Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday at the end of a Defense Council and the Council of Ministers. “A few days ago, I was talking about the start of a meteoric wave and this is confirmed with a reproduction rate of the virus, which is estimated today at 1.6 and which should very probably continue to increase in the coming days. and the next few weeks, ”he warned.
Faced with this acceleration of the epidemic, the government did not however make a concrete announcement, referring to a press conference on Thursday at midday by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran. Gabriel Attal, however, warned that measures are planned along three main axes: “the acceleration of the vaccine booster campaign”, “the strengthening of the health pass” and “the strengthening of barrier measures” such as wearing a mask.
The booster dose extended to under 50?
On the foreground, Olivier Véran should specify to whom the booster dose, called the third dose, of anti-Covid vaccine will be opened in the coming weeks. Currently, people over 65 can receive it, as well as people at risk and caregivers. President Emmanuel Macron announced in early November that everyone over 50 could benefit from it from December, and the High Authority for Health (HAS) went even further by recommending it now to over 40s.
As for the health pass, the challenge is to know how to condition it for recall according to the age groups. For the time being, only those over 65 have the prospect of having to receive their reminder to continue to benefit from this document, a mechanism which is due to start on December 15.
Gabriel also returned to the situation in Guadeloupe by denouncing a “recalcitrant minority” and “violent” which takes “an entire island hostage”. “Public health cannot be instrumentalised for political ends”, he insisted, estimating that the government had “created the conditions for dialogue with the announcements of the Prime Minister (Jean Castex) on Monday evening”.