Covid-19: the new measures announced by Jean Castex in the face of the fifth wave – LCI

The press conference was eagerly awaited. The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, and his Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, have listed the new measures decided at a Council of Ministers which succeeded a Health Defense Council in an attempt to curb the current epidemic wave, carried by both the Delta and Omicron variants.

“Vaccination remains at the heart of our strategy”, hammered Jean Castex, before listing measures to support him in the face of an outbreak of cases unprecedented since the start of the epidemic, which will for the most part be implemented on January 3, 2022 and for three weeks.

The Prime Minister thus announced that as of this date, the maximum gauges during public events whatever they are, would be limited to 5,000 people outdoors, and to 2,000 indoors. This measure concerns both performance halls and sports venues.

The sale and consumption of food, which involves temporarily removing his mask will also be prohibited. This will also be the case for transport, “including long distance”, added Jean Castex. Consuming standing up will also be prohibited in restaurants or bars during the same three weeks in January.

“The use of telework will be compulsory, I mean compulsory”, insisted Jean Castex, from January 3, in all companies, at the rate of three days minimum per week, and four wherever possible. The Minister of Labor, Elisabeth Borne, will begin consultations with the social partners on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said.

At the beginning of December, he called for this “target-measure”, without making it compulsory. Elisabeth Borne explained that she favored social dialogue within companies to achieve this objective and “that we do not need to go back to obligations”.

The minimum time for the administration of a booster dose is now reduced to three months after the previous injection. Recommended to six months at the start of the recall campaign, this minimum period was lowered several times to finally reach this three-month threshold, depending on the feedback from studies on its effectiveness in the face of variants.

22 million French people have already received a booster dose, more than half of the 40 million people who were eligible so far.

As expected, the government has remained on its line of not closing classes or schools. “as a last resort”: “we will not postpone the start of the school year”, hammered Jean Castex, “nor will we switch colleges and high schools into distancing”, The start of the school year will therefore take place as planned on January 3, 2022, but screening operations will be extended in schools, announced the Prime Minister, faced with a “extremely tense health situation”.

The executive also decided to return the compulsory mask wearing in city centers, as of January 3, 2022. A similar measure was decided last week in Spain and Italy, and the prefect of the Savoie department l ‘had applied on his side.

The track, for a time mentioned, of a curfew on December 31 has not been adopted, Jean Castex contenting himself with calling on the French to respect the appropriate measures. New isolation measures will be taken “by the end of the week”, specified the Prime Minister, adjusted to the specificities of the Omicron variant, and which could be less restrictive for the case-contacts.