The French government is considering introducing stricter coronavirus measures in the coming days to stem an alarming rise in cases of the new COVID-19 variants, Health Minister Olivier Veran said in Paris on Thursday.
At his weekly press conference, Veran noted that the sanitary situation was deteriorating as "the virus variants are actively circulating in France" despite the government's efforts to contain them.
"The fact that the variants are still spreading suggests that the curfew and all the measures are certainly useful but probably insufficient," Veran said.
On Jan. 16, a night-time ban on people's movement, in force since mid-December, was brought forward by two hours to 6 p.m. across France to reduce social mixing and halt a surge in COVID-19 infections.
But "the virus is spreading faster," with daily infections increasing by 10 percent per week and reaching an average of 20,000 compared with 18,000 in December, according to the minister.
He added that 2,000 cases of the new virus variants were detected per day, up from 500 in early January, increasing pressure on hospitals, where about 60 percent of the intensive care beds are now occupied by coronavirus patients.
"We consider these new variants as new viruses," Veran said. "What we want to avoid is an epidemic within the epidemic, which is not yet visible in France but which everything leads us to believe will be a reality very quickly and very strongly if we do nothing."
"The objective of this press conference is to provide transparency with current data... to understand the decisions that will have to be taken in the coming days," he told reporters without elaborating.
As of Wednesday, a total of 3,106,859 people had tested positive for COVID-19 in France. Of them, 74,456 have died.
A total of 27,169 patients are currently treated in hospitals, including 3,107 in intensive care, according to the health authorities.
