© GEOFFROY VAN DER HASSELT
Olivier Véran during a speech in the Senate on January 11, 2022.
In summary :
– Covid patients continue to flow in French hospitals, which currently care for nearly 23,889 patients with Covid. Every day on average, 287,000 people test positive in France, against barely 200,000 a week ago.
– Massive and historic strike expected this Thursday in Education to oppose the health protocol. All the unions of the body denounce the measures put in place by the government who do not sufficiently protect students and teachers against Covid-19 and keep changing since the start of the January school year.
– The richer a country, the more its population is vaccinated against Covid. Whereas the third dose became widespread in better-off countries, the administration of the first doses is not yet that in its infancy in the less well-endowed states. Find here our interactive map on the subject.
In Guadeloupe, the surge in cases continues. “The level of viral contamination is very high” and “the hospital situation tends to deteriorate”, warned the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Guadeloupe during its weekly update on the pandemic. In the archipelago, the incidence rate now exceeds 3,500 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (against 2,800 across France). The omicron variant represents 96% of new cases there.
More and more French people are criticizing the government’s action in the face of Covid. According to the economy barometer produced by Odoxa for BFM Business, Aviva and Challenges, only 40% of French people consider the government’s record positive in the face of the pandemic, or eight points less than in November. A score lower than among most of our European neighbors: in Italy for example, 63% of the population is happy with the government’s action. This figure reaches 52% in Spain and 49% in the United Kingdom. Only the Germans (38% positive opinions) are more critical than the French towards those who lead them.
The Senate adopted the text on the vaccination pass. On the night of Wednesday to Thursday, the senators voted in first reading and by a very large majority the text which transforms the health pass into a vaccination pass. The bill has nevertheless been extensively revised. A pass extinction threshold below 10,000 people hospitalized on French soil has been added in particular, as well as an exemption for minors or the inability for cafetiers to verify the identity cards of pass holders. Deputies and senators must meet today to try to agree on a common version of the text.
Fed up with the waltz of Covid protocols in schools: the strike promises to be very followed. According to forecasts from Snuipp-FSU, the first union in primary education, 75% of teachers should not go through the school portal this Thursday. Half of the establishments could be forced to remain closed. All denounce a health protocol imposed by the government which keeps evolving and does not protect students, teachers or staff working in schools, colleges and high schools.