“It all seems to be a film that never ends,” admitted Prime Minister Jean Castex when describing an “extremely tense health situation” to the press. “From tomorrow it will be enough three months after your second injection to be able to benefit from your booster”, announced the Prime Minister, against four months currently. “We are doing everything to speed up and strengthen vaccination,” he insisted. In the immediate future, in France, more than 45 million people are now affected by the recall, of which about half have already received it, according to Olivier Véran.
To try to counter the arrival of the variant of Covid-19 Omicron in France, large gatherings are now limited to 2,000 people indoors and 5,000 people outdoors, and standing concerts are prohibited. However, Jean Castex also specified that there will be no curfew for the New Year, as it had been envisaged a time.
The start of the school year maintained on January 3
The start of the school year is maintained on January 3, in order to keep schools open as much as possible. “We will not postpone the start of the school year, nor will we switch middle and high schools to distancing” but “we will amplify our policy of monitoring and screening in schools at the start of the school year”, announced Jean Castex. Olivier Véran added that “if new data were to appear in France or abroad” on the impact of the Omicron variant on children, the government could be required “to take all necessary measures to protect them”.
Concerning adults, teleworking becomes “compulsory” when possible, three days minimum per week, also announced the Prime Minister, “in all the companies and all the employees for which it is possible”. Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne will hold consultations with the social partners on this subject on Tuesday, he added, specifying that the measure would take effect “for a period of three weeks”.
Transformation of the health pass into a vaccination pass
The obligation of wearing of the mask outside will be extended in all city centers. “The characteristics of Omicron”, a variant of the virus in the process of becoming the majority, “will lead us, after advice from the health authorities, to adjust our doctrine on the duration of isolation”, explained the Prime Minister, adding that the executive “set (a) these new rules by the weekend”.
Jean Castex and the Minister of Health Olivier Véran held a press conference on Monday at 7.15 p.m. in Matignon at the end of a health defense council and a Council of Ministers devoted to the outbreak of the Covid-19 epidemic. These two emergency meetings were intended to decide on possible new restrictive measures in the face of the meteoric surge of the Omicron variant and to accelerate the transformation of the health pass into a vaccination pass.