More than 1 in 100 people in the Paris region have tested
positive in the past week, according to the regional health service. Most new
infections are linked to the omicron variant, which government experts predict
will be dominant in France in the coming days. Omicron is already dominant in
Britain, right across the Channel.
Meanwhile a surge in delta variant infections in recent
months is pushing up hospital admissions in France, and put ICUs under strain
again over the Christmas holidays. More than 1,000 people in France with the
virus died over the past week, bringing the country’s overall death toll to
more than 122,000.
President Emmanuel Macron’s government is holding emergency
meetings Monday to discuss the next steps in tackling the virus. Some
scientists and educators have urged delaying the post-holiday return to school,
or suggested re-imposing a curfew.
But France’s education minister says schools should open as
usual on Jan. 3, and other government officials are working to avoid measures
that would hammer the country’s economic recovery.
Instead the French government is hoping that stepped-up
vaccinations will be enough. The government is pushing a draft law that would
require vaccination to enter all restaurants and many public venues, instead of
the current health pass system which allows people to produce a negative test
or proof of recovery if they’re not vaccinated.
In neighboring Belgium, the government imposed new measures
starting Sunday that ordered cultural venues like movie theaters and concert
halls to close.
Some venues defied the ban, and thousands of performers,
event organizers and others demonstrated Sunday in Brussels against the
decision, carrying signs reading “The Show Must Go On” or “No Culture No
Future.” They accuse the Belgian government of double standards because it
allowed Christmas markets, with their boisterous crowds and mulled wine
drinking, to stay open, along with restaurants and bars.
Even the scientific committee advising the Belgian
government had not asked for the culture industry closures, leaving virologist
Marc Van Ranst to ponder that, in Belgium, “gluhwein beat culture.”
Meanwhile, in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has gone
farther than most European countries and shut down all nonessential stores,
restaurants and bars and extended the school holidays in a partial new
lockdown.
In Britain, where the omicron variant has been dominant for
days, government requirements have been largely voluntary and milder than those
on the continent, but the Conservative government said it could impose new
restrictions after Christmas. The U.K. hit a new high of 122,186 daily
infections on Friday, but did not report figures for Christmas.
Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland imposed new
restrictions Sunday on socializing, mainly limiting the size of gatherings,
moves that the restaurant, pub and nightclub industries have described as
economically devastating. -AP