? Gabriel Attal, porte-parole du Gouvernement, Compte rendu du Conseil des ministres du 17 février 2021 https://t.co/CnnTTi5ln5
— Christophe Frot (@FrotChristophe) February 17, 2021
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“Let's give the French a bit of breathing space,” one source was quoted as telling French media, while Prime Minister Jean Castex is not scheduled to be part of the regular Thursday evening press conference.
At present the situation in France is relatively stable, although several départements are giving cause for concern with high rates of the new variants of the Covid virus.
Overall the number of new Covid cases have seen a slight but sustained fall, from a daily average of 20,000 new cases last week to 18,000 this week.
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France's Covid case numbers continue to drop, even without a lockdown. If things continue like this, ?? will count 15,600 new cases on average per week in 10 days, which is down from over 18,000 now and 20,000 just one week ago. Beware of big regional differences though. https://t.co/GhlNpIa9RU
— Ingri Bergo (@ingribergo) February 16, 2021
Hospital occupancy rates have also dropped slightly, though Attal said “the pressure on hospitals, especially in intensive care units, remains very high.”
Several eastern regions have areas where Covid patients occupy over 70 percent of the total intensive care capacity. In Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur, the region encompassing Nice and the French Riviera, hospitals are at the brink of saturation, with Covid patients filling 97 percent of the total capacity in all of the region's départements.
The emergence of new variants also continues to worry health chiefs, with new variants including the UK, South African and Brazilian variants now accounting for 25 percent of all cases in France.
READ ALSO What is France doing to control the spread of new variants of Covid?
The eastern département of Moselle has reported 300 cases of new variants within a week, which officials say cannot be linked to travel or a single cluster.
Health chiefs will also be watching nervously to see if travel and family visits over the February school holidays leads to a post-holiday spike in cases.
For this reason France is unlikely to see a significant relaxation of the rules currently in place in the coming weeks, although ministers are discussing a possible reopening of some cultural sites such as museums while Culture Minister Roselyn Bachelot has announced a series of 'experimental' concerts with strict health rules in Paris and Marseille in the spring.
what a surprise.
Great news! Congrats! But… just one problem… where’s the vaccine? We’re dying here in the Alpes Maritimes, especially Nice, and no vaccines! And no one telling us why? Our main vaccination center reports: 1 vaccine will be given in the next 28 days! People are angry, scared, and helpless.
Breathing space? What breathing space? We are still in curfew, have been since October and infection rates are not exactly plummeting. Stable situation is not a good thing….it means nothing is improving. Vaccine rollout has been terrible. This attitude from French government is disappointing to say the least. Do they really believe they are on top of the situation?
I would happily accept the Oxford jab at my surgery as the alternative seems to be no jab and take your chance with the virus. What a shambles.
I agree completely with the recent comments. Here in the south of Seine et Marne the same seemingly hopeless situation with the vaccine availability and no attempt to explain or justify it; just`Tant pis” .
What appalls me the the fact that the Government isn’t being held to account. We dont want a riot in Paris we just want competent public health management.