France’s “supersonic” rise in Covid-19 cases is set to continue with no signs of a slow down, a French government spokesman has warned.
Aside from the UK and the US, France is the only country to declare more than 200,000 Covid infections in a single day as the highly transmissible Omicron variant continues to run rampant.
France reported a record 271,686 cases on Tuesday, breaking its previous record. Britain on Wednesday reported 194,747 further cases of COVID-19 and 334 more deaths within 28 days of a positive test, according to official data.
The deaths figures reported on Wednesday included four days of hospital data for England as the data catches up after a seasonal holiday.
Gabriel Attal, spokesman for President Macron’s administration, said on Wednesday cases had reached “stratospheric levels” in the Ile-de-France region around Paris and some other parts of the country. He warned of a worsening crisis in hospitals over the coming weeks.
“Our epidemic is still far from over,” Mr Attal said. “This supersonic rise in contamination will continue over the next few days, and even into the next few weeks.”
Mr Attal said that the government has decreed a health state of emergency in the French regions of Guadeloupe, Guyana, Mayotte, Saint-Martin and Saint-Barthélémy, where the infection rate is soaring.
At the end of December, a health state of emergency was declared in La Réunion and was extended in Martinique, where it has been in place since mid-July.
His comments came after President Emmanuel Macron used controversial language to describe how he intends to persuade unvaccinated people to get a Covid shot.
“The unvaccinated, I really want to hassle them. And so we will continue doing so, to the end. That’s the strategy,” Le Parisien newspaper quoted the French leader as saying, in an interview at the presidential Elysee Palace with a panel of its readers.
His comments complicated the already difficult passage in parliament of the government’s planned new vaccine pass. If approved, the mandatory certificate would see unvaccinated people banned from places such as restaurants, cinemas, theatres, museums and sports arenas. The pass would also be required on inter-regional trains and buses, and domestic flights.
Mr Attal defended the government’s vaccination-led strategy, which he said had permitted “the feat of reconciling a maximum circulation of the virus with minimal restrictions”.
Infections rise across Europe
While France is currently the worst affected EU country in the fourth wave of Covid, other nations have also seen infections rise exponentially.
On Wednesday Covid infections in the Netherlands reached a record high of around 24,500, official data showed.
Infections were up almost 60 per cent from last week despite a tight lockdown that has seen all but essential stores closed since December 19.
The lockdown has driven down the number of coronavirus patients in Dutch hospitals to their lowest levels in two months but experts expect admissions to increase again soon due to the rapid rise in infections.
On Tuesday Italy recorded 170,844 cases, up from 68,052 the day before, and 259 fatalities, against 140 the previous day.
Germany is also grappling with a sudden rise in cases and is poised to sharpen contact curbs to tackle an expected surge in infections in coming weeks, even as protests against pandemic measures spread.
“A tightening will unfortunately be needed to face the powerful wave that is bearing down on us,” Health Minister Karl Lauterbach was quoted as saying late on Tuesday by the RND media group. He has repeatedly warned of the threat posed by Omicron.
His comments came as the country’s health authorities declared 61,905 new cases.
Finland is dealing with a surge in cases which has caused testing protocols to effectively collapse under the strain of the latest Covid wave.
Most people now have to wait three to four days for a test appointment, rendering track and trace efforts meaningless, Finland’s health authorities said.
Half of PCR tests taken in the capital Helsinki, where Omicron accounts for 90 per cent of infections, are coming back positive.
On Tuesday the Nordic country declared 5,492 infections.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
MATCH INFO
Rugby World Cup (all times UAE)
Final: England v South Africa, Saturday, 1pm
The specs
Engine: 8.0-litre, quad-turbo 16-cylinder
Transmission: 7-speed auto
0-100kmh 2.3 seconds
0-200kmh 5.5 seconds
0-300kmh 11.6 seconds
Power: 1500hp
Torque: 1600Nm
Price: Dh13,400,000
On sale: now
Company%20profile
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GIANT REVIEW
Starring: Amir El-Masry, Pierce Brosnan
Director: Athale
Rating: 4/5
PETER%20PAN%20%26%20WENDY
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EDirector%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EDavid%20Lowery%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EStars%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20Alexander%20Molony%2C%20Ever%20Anderson%2C%20Joshua%20Pickering%3C%2Fp%3E%0A%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3ERating%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%203%2F5%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
White hydrogen: Naturally occurring hydrogen
Chromite: Hard, metallic mineral containing iron oxide and chromium oxide
Ultramafic rocks: Dark-coloured rocks rich in magnesium or iron with very low silica content
Ophiolite: A section of the earth’s crust, which is oceanic in nature that has since been uplifted and exposed on land
Olivine: A commonly occurring magnesium iron silicate mineral that derives its name for its olive-green yellow-green colour
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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The specs
Engine: 2.3-litre, turbo four-cylinder
Transmission: 10-speed auto
Power: 300hp
Torque: 420Nm
Price: Dh189,900
On sale: now
Yuki Means Happiness
Alison Jean Lester
John Murray
THE LOWDOWN
Photograph
Rating: 4/5
Produced by: Poetic License Motion Pictures; RSVP Movies
Director: Ritesh Batra
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Farrukh Jaffar, Deepak Chauhan, Vijay Raaz
More from Armen Sarkissian
New UK refugee system
- A new “core protection” for refugees moving from permanent to a more basic, temporary protection
- Shortened leave to remain - refugees will receive 30 months instead of five years
- A longer path to settlement with no indefinite settled status until a refugee has spent 20 years in Britain
- To encourage refugees to integrate the government will encourage them to out of the core protection route wherever possible.
- Under core protection there will be no automatic right to family reunion
- Refugees will have a reduced right to public funds
COMPANY PROFILE
Founders: Alhaan Ahmed, Alyina Ahmed and Maximo Tettamanzi
Total funding: Self funded
THE BIO
Born: Mukalla, Yemen, 1979
Education: UAE University, Al Ain
Family: Married with two daughters: Asayel, 7, and Sara, 6
Favourite piece of music: Horse Dance by Naseer Shamma
Favourite book: Science and geology
Favourite place to travel to: Washington DC
Best advice you’ve ever been given: If you have a dream, you have to believe it, then you will see it.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How to avoid crypto fraud
- Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
- Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
- Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
- Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
- Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
- Only use reputable platforms that have a track record of strong regulatory compliance.
- Store funds in hardware wallets as opposed to online exchanges.
Emergency
Director: Kangana Ranaut
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade, Milind Soman, Mahima Chaudhry
Rating: 2/5
Company%20Profile
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How Voiss turns words to speech
The device has a screen reader or software that monitors what happens on the screen
The screen reader sends the text to the speech synthesiser
This converts to audio whatever it receives from screen reader, so the person can hear what is happening on the screen
A VOISS computer costs between $200 and $250 depending on memory card capacity that ranges from 32GB to 128GB
The speech synthesisers VOISS develops are free
Subsequent computer versions will include improvements such as wireless keyboards
Arabic voice in affordable talking computer to be added next year to English, Portuguese, and Spanish synthesiser
Partnerships planned during Expo 2020 Dubai to add more languages
At least 2.2 billion people globally have a vision impairment or blindness
More than 90 per cent live in developing countries
The Long-term aim of VOISS to reach the technology to people in poor countries with workshops that teach them to build their own device
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The%20Kitchen
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
COMPANY%20PROFILE%20
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Tamkeen's offering
- Option 1: 70% in year 1, 50% in year 2, 30% in year 3
- Option 2: 50% across three years
- Option 3: 30% across five years
HOW TO WATCH
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The%C2%A0specs%20
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