The number of COVID-19 cases recorded each day in France is close to 200,000, the new French Minister of Health, François Braun, announced on Tuesday during a hearing at the National Assembly.
The seventh epidemic wave “is increasing in recent days”, and “we are recording around 120,000 cases [par jour] on average over the past week, with the number of cases expected to slightly exceed 200,000 [mardi] evening, “said Mr. Braun at the start of a discussion on the “health watch and security” bill.
Faced with a virus that “circulates more and faster”, “we must protect the population and ensure the impact of this recovery on the health system”, argued the minister before the law commission, the day after his appointment in the second government of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne.
Noting the increase in admissions to common hospital services and, to a lesser extent, to critical care, this professional emergency physician stressed that it had so far been “far below the January peak” and without comparison with the waves. previous ones, “on an even greater scale”. “However, we are extremely attentive to the evolution of the situation in the context that we know about the hospital”, continued Mr. Braun.
And “contrary to what some claim, the government’s strategy is clear” in the face of this wave, he claimed, calling for “finding all the right reflexes”.
In addition to the recommended wearing of the mask “in crowded places, such as [à l’Assemblée nationale], for example, in public transport, in transport for the holidays ”, the minister, masked, encouraged the most fragile to go and get the second vaccination reminder. “Vaccination against severe forms [de la COVID-19] saves lives,” said Mr. Braun, saying he had seen “far too many preventable deaths” as an emergency physician.
“If we are coming out of exceptional crisis regimes, we are not getting out of the COVID-19 epidemic, and there is a need to maintain certain tools”, objects of the two “very targeted” articles of the bill, said defended the minister. This text is “not a draft state of emergency” and “includes minimum but necessary measures allowing us after July 31 to monitor the epidemic to protect the French”.