French cases of COVID are growing at an unprecedented rate: Minister of Health

French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday that new COVID-19 infections were rising at an unprecedented rate due to the Delta variant, after 18,000 cases were reported in the previous 24 hours.

Referring to the latest figures while speaking in parliament, Veran said: “This means we have increased the spread of the virus by around 150 per cent in the last week: we have never seen it, not even with COVID. [the original form], neither the British, nor the South African nor the Brazilian variant “.

The level of infections is the highest since mid-May, when the country came out of a third national closure.

France, which is preparing for a fourth wave of infections due to the spread of the Delta variant, has been running to vaccinate as many people as possible.

Direction vaccine skeptical, Veran said the new figures showed that “this is not a time for doubt and hesitation” and that achieving the herd’s immunity through a high degree of vaccine coverage is “the only way we have … to get rid of of COVID once and for all. “

He was speaking while Parliament had to debate a series of controversial new rules aimed at pressuring millions of vacant people to receive a puncture, as only 45% of the population is fully vaccinated.

Under a bill that will be voted on in the coming days, people who want to eat at restaurants, go to the movies or catch a long-distance train will have to get vaccinated or produce a negative COVID test.

And from September, vaccines will be mandatory for health care workers and retirement homes.

Macron’s announcement of the measures this month sparked a fight against vaccines in a country that was one of the most timid in the world at the start of the pandemic.

Parliamentarians receive death threats

But it has also provoked a backlash, with more than 100,000 people protesting across the country on Saturday against what they called the country’s vaccine “dictatorship.”

As a sign of the passions sparked by the measures, two vaccination centers have been vandalized last week and Macron Republican on the Move party MPs have been the target of vitriol in social media.

Paris prosecutors said Tuesday they were investigating death threats received by several legislators who have supported the new rules.

Patricia Miralles, MP for the Republic on the Move representing the southern constituency of Herault, which includes the city of Montpellier, posted a message she received threatening pro-vaccine MPs with “real bullets”.

On Friday, a dozen anti-vaccine protesters stormed the office of Parliament Speaker Richard Ferrand in the western region of Brittany, but caused no damage.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin has ordered police to increase security around MPs ’homes and polling stations.

© 2021 AFP