Will Île-de-France prevent another lockdown? This Thursday March 11, 2021 at 6 p.m., Olivier Véran held a new press brief. On the occasion, the health minister addressed the health situation in France.
During the brief, the Health Minister addressed the vaccination campaign, Covid mutations, as well as the worsening situation in the three hardest-hit regions namely Hauts-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and especially Île-de-France.
Furthermore, Véran confirmed the epidemic markers have been deteriorating for several days in all Île-de-France departments. “A patient is hospitalized in intensive care every 12 minutes in Île-de-France”, he stated. Furthermore, the “hospital pressure will keep on rising” in the coming weeks.
As statements about implement a new lockdown – especially in Île-de-France – were expected, given indicators, the Health Minister simply stated that with the government they “will take all necessary actions to save lives”. For instance, he confirms “dozens, and even thousands of evacuations might be completed in the coming days” in hit regions.
More worrying, the share of variants in new contaminations have health authorities upset: the new Covid-19 strain, also called “UK variant”, is more than 67% present in France. In the hardest-hit regions, the incidence rate skyrockets specifically “in Val-de-Marne and Seine-Saint-Denis, where it exceeds 400” people for 100,000 inhabitants. “If the speed keeps on being the same; a critical threshold will be reached”, the minister says. In the meantime, Véran assured the government was “making everything they can to face”. Namely: “regionally rallying all health services and private clinics” where activities are cancelled starting this weekend.
In the same time, the Health Minister detailed the acceleration of the vaccination campaign. On the nation scale, “760,000 vaccines are coming today and tomorrow in pharmacies”, the minister confirms, and “286,000 French have been given the first dose of vaccine” in one day, on Wednesday March 10 only. A record. All in all, “2 million French have been given two injections”. He also confirmed “AstraZeneca vaccine is not halted” as it presents “no proven increased risk”.
Olivier Véran’s statements – Thursday March 11, 2021:
