EPIDEMIC: A Defense Council is scheduled for Tuesday, but the government could wait until January 7th before taking new measures against the coronavirus
- The Elysee Palace said that a new health defence council will be organized on Tuesday.
- This meeting comes in a tense context, while several elected officials, especially in the Grand Est, are worried about a rebound in the epidemic linked in particular to the Christmas holidays.
- “We will know more around January 3rd-4th,” says the government, while a stage is scheduled for January 7th.
Our lives are now marked with dates, marking the new stages in the fight against the coronavirus. The Elysee Palace announced that a new Health Defense Council would be held tomorrow Tuesday, two days after the first vaccinations in France against Covid-19.
This meeting comes in a tense context, while several elected officials, especially in the Grand Est, are worried about a rebound in the epidemic. The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, himself did not rule out Sunday in the JDD the possibility of a third confinement of the population. But the executive could wait until January 7th before taking new measures.
“We will know more about January 3rd-4th”, says the government
“The Defense Council will make it possible to take stock of the epidemic situation in the country, but it is a little early to take stock of the Christmas holidays. We will know more around January 3rd-4th ”, says the government. During his last speech in mid-December, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced that cinemas, theatres and museums should remain closed until at least January 7th. It will then be a “review clause”, as presented by the Minister of Culture, Roselyne Bachelot. Namely that the sanitary conditions would be reassessed at that time, to consider or not a reopening of these places. It is also on this date that the rules concerning teleworking could change, if the situation improves.
At the start of the Christmas holidays, the government had no plans to make any new announcements by then. But Matignon remains cautious, while a rebound in contaminations seems to be taking shape in the Grand Est, in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and in the Alpes-Maritimes department. “We’ll see if January 7 is tenable. But if the figures were not good at all, we could give visibility. We are not ruling out any leads, ”they say cautiously, while some elected officials are calling for more restrictions in the most affected areas.
“It is a difficult situation for the government because we are in uncertainty”
In this in-between period, the executive is walking on eggshells. And keep your eyes on the epidemic numbers. “We observe the situation hour by hour”, says Olivier Véran in the JDD. “These figures tell us that there is no alarming progression, that the virus is circulating less globally, even if we are disappointed that the number of contamination is not more down”, notes the deputy LREM of Asia -Oceania-Eastern Europe Anne Genetet, while the latest score reports 3,100 new cases on Saturday, in the middle of Christmas weekend, but more than 40,000 Thursday and Friday. “We are suspended from these figures. In the meantime, the French must continue their efforts and we will know around January 7 whether it is necessary to strengthen the measures to restrict population mixing or if, on the contrary, we can lift some of them, ”adds the spokesperson. from the group to the Assembly.
The authorities – and the whole country – fear the arrival of a third wave in the weeks following the end of the year. “How are we going to take the holiday season? There is a lot of mixing of population, but it is also a period of suspension of professional activities, nobody goes to school… ”, assures Erwan Balanant, the MoDem deputy of Finistère. “It is a difficult situation for the government because we are in uncertainty. You have to have the humility to wait for the next results ”.
Emmanuel Macron should therefore be very careful when making his end-of-year wishes on Thursday evening at 8 p.m. “The danger would be to make promises from Gascon when we do not yet know the impact of the holidays. So I wonder what he will be able to tell us? “Asks an elected representative of the majority. The Head of State should mention one of the hopes against the epidemic: the vaccination campaign against Covid-19 in France and in Europe. Whose date, this time, is confirmed: it started last Sunday.
