The French Minister of Health, François Braun, warned that his hand will not tremble if he has to re-impose the use of the mask due to the rebound in covid-19 cases, but he assured that he prefers not to resort to coercion and asked his compatriots get vaccinated.
“If the infections continue to increase, my hand will not tremble if it is necessary to decide the obligation of the mask,” he said in an interview on the BFM television channel.
The Government’s decisions, in any case, will depend on the evolution of the situation in France, which faces the threat of a serious triple epidemic of influenza, bronchiolitis (which affects mainly children under 2 years of age) and a new wave of covid -19.
Braun specified that he is not “favorable” to the impositions and that he trusts that the French will voluntarily put the necessary measures to protect the most vulnerable and the capacity of the health system.
“I launch a solemn appeal for vaccination,” he also stated, referring to the campaign for the fourth dose for the upcoming Christmas holidays.
The minister considered it “absurd” to know that if vaccination is not increased there will be “problems” and that, even so, people do not go to get their reinforcement doses.
Also the president of the national committee for surveillance and anticipation of health risks, Brigitte Autran, considered it “disheartening” that in France less people are going to get vaccinated than other countries, also for the flu.
“We ask to reinforce the use of the mask,” Autran said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche, after specifying that, although France is not yet officially in a ninth wave of covid-19 infections, the increasing trend points in that direction. .
As of December 3, when the French health authorities published the latest infection data, the country registered 52,908 new cases, which represented a weekly increase of almost 10%.
The latest incidence rate figures stood at 550 per 100,000 inhabitants (as of November 30), a 37.7% increase compared to the levels registered seven days earlier.
