Paris, February 4 French Prime Minister Castell said on the 4th local time that the variant novel coronavirus has further spread in France, and 14% of the new confirmed cases in France are variant virus infection. Mayotte, the French overseas province, has a serious pandemic situation and will be “locked down” from the 5th.
Castell held a press conference on the same day to update the pandemic. He first warned that France’s pandemic situation is “still fragile”, with an average of 20,000 new confirmed cases and 1,600 hospitalized patients every day.
But he also pointed out that the positive rate of virus testing is now basically stable, and the spread of the virus has not increased significantly.
Castell also warned that the French people must not relax their vigilance in the face of the risk of variant viruses.
He said that the proportion of variant coronavirus infections in new confirmed cases has increased from 3.3% at the beginning of this month to 14% now.
Castell pointed out that France’s borders to countries outside the European Union were closed to curb the spread of variant viruses. He once again called on people to postpone unnecessary travel.
He also stressed that telecommuting should continue to be strengthened and that public administration should actively implement telecommuting.
Castel said that France will not adopt a third “lockdown” at present, which will not restrict cross-regional travel on mainland France, but will not relax existing control measures.
He reiterated that if the pandemic deteriorates sharply in the future, the government will not hesitate to declare a “lockdown”.
Speaking of vaccination, Castel revealed that the first batch of AstraZeneca vaccines will arrive in France this weekend, thus helping the government achieve the vaccination target at the end of this month.
It is planned that 4 million people in France will be vaccinated with the first dose at the end of this month.
French officials said on the 4th that since the 1st of this month, the French overseas department Mayotte has reported a sharp increase in the infection rate of the novel coronavirus, especially the active spread of variant viruses there.
In response to the pandemic, from 3:00 p.m. Paris time on the 5th, Mayotte will be closed down for three weeks.
Mayotte is an island in the Mozambique Strait, which is an overseas department of France.
Last year, the novel coronavirus spread intensively in Mayotte, and the local “unblocking” process was postponed for a time.
According to the French Ministry of Health, France added 23,448 new confirmed cases in a single day on the 4th, with a total of 3,274,608 confirmed cases. The number of COVID-19 deaths in France is now 77,952, and 357 new deaths.
