LIVE – Omicron variant: flights with southern Africa will resume on Saturday, with “drastic supervision”

“The vaccine obligation is not the choice that France has made”, recalled Olivier Véran this Wednesday from the 9th arrondissement of Paris.

“Who says obligation says control and sanction, so the feasibility is not obvious. We know how to make compulsory vaccination in the very young, in infants (…). In adults it is more complicated. I do not say not that it is impossible “, justified the Minister of Health.

“We made the choice of the health pass which was a powerful incentive, and we made the choice to multiply all the operations to go towards,” he continued.

Referring to the “tens of thousands of elderly people isolated at home, or less elderly people with a disability that isolates them who receive a nurse’s visit at home”, Olivier Véran announced this Wednesday from the 9th arrondissement of Paris that “from now on, the home vaccination carried out by nurses will be increased financially to thank the nurses for their great mobilization”.

“I invite pharmacists to remain open as much as possible on weekends and there will be an increase in vaccinations for pharmacists when they carry out these vaccinations on weekends,” continued the Minister of Health.

The government’s stated objective is to achieve 10 million recalls by the end of the week, said Olivier Véran.

“Collectively, the recall is the best shield”, defended Gabriel Attal on Wednesday, indicating that “the recall campaign has experienced a prodigious acceleration”.

“We hope to reach the 8 million people who received their booster dose this evening, they were 4.4 million on November 14,” said the government spokesman.

“The recall confers exceptional protection to all those who receive it, a study by the Drees has once again shown it”, recalls the Secretary of State.

“The variant does not in any way call into question the effectiveness and even the need for the vaccine and the booster dose,” he also said.

“At present, there are 13 suspected cases of the Omicron variant in our territory”, announced Gabriel Attal after the Council of Ministers.

“A screening suggested that there was a possibility of an Omicron variant,” he said, adding that these cases were “in the process of being sequenced”.

“There will most likely be cases in our territory,” said the Secretary of State.

For the countries of southern Africa, “the reestablishment of flights will be well from Saturday, but it will be done with extremely strict and drastic supervision”, announced Gabriel Attal on Wednesday.

“We are creating a new category of scarlet red country” for the countries most at risk, he added.

“This category will include the seven countries of southern Africa (…) To be added three countries: Malawi, Zambia and Mauritius. For these countries and for these trips, an extremely strict and drastic framework is put in place, ”announces the government spokesperson.

For travelers coming from a country of the European Union, “we have decided, for the unvaccinated, to pass the test deadline to 24 hours,” Gabriel Attal announced Wednesday.

“The question arises of an obligation of negative test for travelers coming from countries in the European Union. On this point, we are working on a European coordination, a decision will be taken at the end of the week”, added the government spokesperson.

For travelers from countries other than those of the European Union, “we have decided to introduce a mandatory negative test of less than 48 hours to travel to France, whether these travelers are vaccinated or not,” said Gabriel. Attal this Wednesday at the end of the Council of Ministers.

The suspension of air links with the countries of southern Africa, which “was to end yesterday evening”, is extended until Saturday, announced Gabriel Attal on Wednesday at the end of the Council of Ministers.

“And from that date, a new strengthened protocol will apply for international travel,” added the government spokesperson.

Production of the children’s version of Pfizer / BioNTech’s anti-Covid vaccine will accelerate and doses will be available in the EU on December 13, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced on Wednesday.

She was speaking at a press conference in Brussels devoted to the evolution of the pandemic and the appearance of the Omicron variant. It will take “100 days” for the scientific community to adapt the vaccine response to this new variant, she also indicated.

Heard by the National Assembly’s Law Commission, the President of the Scientific Council called for remobilization to stem the 5th wave of the Covid-19 epidemic.

“The 5th wave is linked to the Delta variant, the real wave is starting now. Let us tighten the bolts on the barrier gestures to avoid much greater constraints,” he warned.

Israeli Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz announced Tuesday during a press conference at Soroka Hospital in Beer Sheva (Israel) that vaccinated people were “protected from the Omicron variant”, report several media. However, he did not present the full data relating to this information.

“In the coming days we will have more precise information on the effectiveness of the vaccine against Omicron, but we can already be optimistic,” he said according to The Jerusalem Post.

“There are early indications that those who are vaccinated with a still valid vaccine or with a booster will also be protected from this variant.”

Before the opening of the booster dose for all adults, the learned societies of gynecology had already expressed themselves in favor of the third dose for pregnant women, November 17. A recommendation that is now necessary, if we are to believe the results of a study published in the journal Plos Medicine this Tuesday, in full fifth wave.

Conducted between January and June 2020, the survey is based on 245,000 French births. And comes to explore the risks of complications to which a pregnant woman who develops a Covid-19 infection is exposed. Calling for a optimal vaccination coverage in these patients.

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Japan has asked airlines to suspend all new bookings to its territory for a period of one month, amid concerns about the Omicron variant, the Japanese transport ministry said on Wednesday.

“We have asked airlines not to accept new bookings for a month from December 1,” said a ministry official, adding that existing bookings were not affected.

These new restrictions come as a second case of the Omicron variant of Covid-19 was confirmed in the Archipelago on Wednesday. The Japanese government said it was a traveler who arrived from Peru last week.

Nigeria, the most populous country in Africa, has detected three first cases of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus which is spreading across the world in its territory, health authorities said in a statement on Wednesday.

Analyzes “identified and confirmed the first cases in Nigeria of B.1.1.529 SARS-CoV-2, now known as the Omicron variant,” said the head of the Nigerian Center for Disease Control (NCDC), Ifedayo Adetifa.

A liner with nearly 300 passengers was denied access to the port of Puerto Madryn, in southern Argentina and its passengers ordered to isolation on Tuesday, after the detection of a Covid case on board, on background of fear linked to the new Omicron variant.

Argentina’s health ministry said in a statement that it had “ordered the isolation of all passengers aboard the Hamburg ship,” after a positive case was announced on Tuesday.

The liner, under the flag of the Bahamas, is currently in the open sea off Samborombon Bay, about 280 km southeast of Buenos Aires, after making a stopover in the Argentine capital on Friday. After an on-board alert on a possible positive case, PCR tests were carried out in 24 hours on the 170 passengers and 156 crew members, “all negative including that of the person concerned” who nevertheless remained in isolation on the ship, according to Minister Carla Vizzoti.

But a crew member, health care staff, who tested negative on Saturday, tested positive for antigen on Monday. The person is “asymptomatic”, according to the captain of the ship quoted in the ministerial statement.

The government of Sao Paulo, in southern Brazil, on Tuesday announced two cases of the new Omicron variant, the first in that country and in Latin America, in travelers from South Africa.

“The State Secretariat for Health of Sao Paulo confirmed on Tuesday the first two imported cases of the new Omicron variant of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Brazil. The confirmation was made after genetic sequencing,” said the government of Sao Paulo in a statement.

The two infected people are a 41-year-old man and a 37-year-old woman, who arrived in Brazil on November 23 and left for South Africa on November 25, the statement said.

People at risk who have not been fully vaccinated against Covid-19, including those over 60, should avoid travel to areas where local transmission of the coronavirus exists, the World Organization recommended on Tuesday. health after the appearance of the new Omicron variant.

“It should be advised for people who have not been fully vaccinated or who do not have evidence of a previous infection with SARS-CoV-2 and who are at increased risk of developing serious illness and dying, especially people aged 60 or over and those with co-morbidities increasing the risk of severe Covid-19 (eg heart disease, cancer and diabetes), to postpone their travel to areas of local transmission “of the coronavirus, wrote the WHO in an updated travel advice technical document.

Find the latest information on the Covid-19 pandemic and the Omicron variant here.