PARIS, Jan 6 (NNN-AGENCIES) — France set a record for new Covid cases over a 24-hour period on Wednesday with 335,000 additional infections recorded, Health Minister Olivier Veran told parliament.
It was the first time that French cases breached 300,000, smashing the previous record established on Tuesday when 271,686 new Covid cases were recorded.
The French health authority was to publish the exact figure later on Wednesday “but from memory, we had 335,000 infections in our country”, Veran said.
He was speaking during a debate on the government’s plan to replace the current health pass — which contains proof of vaccination, a negative test or recent recovery — with a “vaccine pass” for which only people with full vaccination qualify.
Around five million people in France are still unvaccinated, with 20 percent of them considered to be at high risk from Covid.
ROME: Italy’s government said that it would make vaccination against Covid-19 compulsory for everyone over the age of 50 in a bid to battle surging infections.
“We want to slow down the curve of contagion and encourage Italians who have not yet been vaccinated to do so,” Prime Minister Mario Draghi said during a cabinet meeting at which the measure was adopted, according to a statement.
“We are working in particular on the age groups that are most at risk of being hospitalised, to reduce pressure on hospital to save lives,“ he added.
The new decree obliges people over 50 who do not work to get vaccinated, and those who do work to obtain a vaccine pass — which effectively covers all over 50s.
In another statement, the government said that “the vaccine pass will be necessary for people over 50 in the public and private sectors to access their workplace from February 15.”
Out of Italy’s 59 million people, 28 million are over the age of 50, according to the Istat national statistics agency. — NNN-AGENCIES
