French Prime Minister Jean Castex announced this Wednesday (16) that the wearing of protective masks against the coronavirus will no longer be compulsory in the country in outdoor spaces from this Thursday (17). However, the article will continue to be required in crowded environments such as sports arenas.
The 11 p.m. curfew, which was instituted at the end of last year and which was to last until the end of June, will be suspended next Sunday (27). According to Castex, the decisions were made because the health situation in France has improved faster than the authorities anticipated.
After restaurants, bars and cafes were allowed to reopen indoors last week for the first time in seven months, Castex said life in France was finally starting to return to normal.
“We are on the right track. We will remain together responsible, united and mobilized”, wrote the Prime Minister in a post on Twitter, after a council of ministers during which the suspension of the measures was ordered.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the country has recorded 3,243 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours. This is the lowest number since August 2020 and represents a drop of more than 97% from the peak recorded in April of this year, when nearly 118,000 cases were confirmed in a single day.
The moving average of cases, which reached over 56,000 in November last year and two months ago was around 45,000, is now down to 4,000. health in France, we can say that the pandemic is under control when this rate is less than 5,000 cases per day.
Taking into account the incidence proportional to the size of the population, France records 52.22 new daily cases per million inhabitants. For comparison, Brazil’s rate is 333.41, the highest incidence among the five countries with the highest absolute number of infections – the US has 40.97, Turkey 70. , 79 and India, 56.32.
Castex also announced that the French government’s new vaccination target is to apply two doses of the immunizing agent to at least 35 million people by the end of August, a contingent that represents just over half of the population. French. So far, around 45% of the population has received at least one dose of the vaccine, and those who are already fully immunized represent 21.43% of French people.
French health authorities continue to monitor the progress of variants of the coronavirus. In England, across the Channel, the government has had to postpone the lifting of most restrictions due to the spread of the delta variant, first identified in India.
According to the French Minister of Health, Olivier Verán, the delta is only responsible for 2% to 4% of new cases of Covid-19 identified in France. If it becomes dominant, however, the risk is that the country will face a further rise in the number of infections, as the different strains tend to spread faster, increase the number of hospitalizations and reduce the percentage of infections. vaccine efficacy.