Omicron Variant Threat: France Reports Record 208,000 Covid Cases In Post-Christmas Surge

France set a new national record for Covid-19 on Wednesday with 208,000 new infections recorded more than 24 hours with a post-Christmas surge in cases that caused an alarm in the government.

According to the figure given by the Minister of Health Olivier Veran for parliament hearing, the number of cases jumped by 15 percent since Tuesday when the 179,807 new infection was reported, and has doubled since Saturday.

“I will not call Omicron wave again … I would call it a tidal wave,” Veran said, referring to a new variant who replaced the Delta variant as a dominant strain in France.

About 10 percent of the French population came into contact with someone infected with a virus, said Veran, adding that the numbers “made your head spin.”

The Minister has warned on Monday that France can reach more than 250,000 Daily Covid cases in early January, as weeks of unlimited Christmas parties and family gatherings triggered the spread of disease.

After the cabinet meeting to discuss the crisis on Monday, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced a few steps to try to load the epidemic, but distance themselves from the closure of the masses or locks that have been re-introduced in other EU countries such as the Netherlands.

Some new restrictions, such a ban on eating with high-speed trains or standing in cafes and bars, criticists and political opponents are too limited to being effective.

The government announced on Wednesday that around 1,600 nightclubs will still be closed for three more weeks after they were ordered on December 6.

The Minister of Home Affairs Gerald Darmanin also encouraged local officials to limit public year’s night meetings, especially by requiring outdoor face masks and increased police patrols to enforce the prohibition of public alcohol consumption for that night.

Hospital pressure:

208,000 cases announced on Wednesday easily the highest French daily figure since the virus appeared two years ago and was much higher than in the previous wave.

The reception of daily hospitals for Covid in France is above 1,000 a day, still far below the top of 3,500 during the first wave in April 2020 or nearly 3,000 in the second wave in November last year.

But exponential growth in the number of cases causes alarm.

The French Federation Hospital said Tuesday that “additional steps to protect General Hospitals are needed to avoid saturation of health services and emergency wards that will definitely lead to more canceled operations.”

Many hospitals, especially those in the French hotspot and the South Mediterranean Coast, have canceled non-essential operations because of the surge in Covid receipts, most of whom are people who are not vaccinated.

Although France has one of the highest level of vaccination in the world, with 90 percent of the eligible population has in one last dose, the verean said that there are still five million people who have not been vaccinated old enough to get Jab.

The government risked its strategy to a new law that will be debated in parliament from Wednesday which will require residents to show evidence of vaccination to enter restaurants, cinemas, museums and other public places.

The new “vaccine pass” system will replace the previous “health pass”, which can be obtained by providing a recent negative Covid test in the absence of vaccination.

President Emmanuel Macron has vowed to turn restrictions on those who are not vaccinated, but have stopped making JAB mandatory.