Omicron: vaccine pass, reminder … The government is stepping up to avoid new restrictions – LCI

“We cannot afford to waste time on the pretext of a vacation. The acceleration is constrained by the force of the wave and the exceptional contagiousness of Omicron.” Here is the confession of a member of the government entourage made Tuesday to LCI. Since the beginning of the week, to face the epidemic without imposing new measures, the executive has chosen to accelerate to increase the rate of vaccinations and to bring into force earlier than planned measures intended to contain the wave epidemic.

So this Wednesday morning, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran announced the opening of vaccination for children aged 5 to 11 as of today, after having “had the favorable opinions of the health and scientific authorities”. The High Authority for Health (HAS) gave the green light on Monday for the vaccination of children aged 5 to 11 years after the Ethics Committee (CCNE) on Friday. On Wednesday, a final opinion was published by the Orientation Council of the vaccine strategy. He added that he was not judging “not improbable” the opening “by next week” of the booster dose 4 months after the last injection. On Tuesday, the government spokesperson assured that “The objective is to encourage vaccination as much as possible because we can still see that it is our best tool in the face of the progression of the epidemic”.

Tuesday, it is on the adoption of the vaccine pass that the government accelerated things. While the presentation was to take place on January 5, a Council of Ministers was convened on December 27 to allow the text to reach the National Assembly from the week of January 3 and be adopted. “from the first half of January”. This bill should also strengthen controls and penalties for fake health passes in circulation.

Previously, the executive had already tightened border controls, closed nightclubs and banned large gatherings on public roads for December 31.

“We have the means, we have the tools, we have the weapons, we have the mobilization which will allow us to cope and which can allow us to thwart the prognosis in our country with regard to the epidemic”, said Gabriel Attal Tuesday after a meeting in Matignon. As always, however, he warned of a “possible need to have to take other measures” in case of “significant deterioration of the health situation and a risk for our hospital”.

Earlier this week, the executive did not rule out making new announcements by December 31. “It’s possible”, an adviser to the executive confirmed to LCI on Wednesday. “We try that the measures are not announced overnight but it can happen next week depending on the situation in the hospital”, he said. “As long as we can not take restrictive and custodial measures, we will”.

According to Olivier Véran, the number of contaminations should exceed 100,000 per day in France by the end of December.