Covid: cases continue to fall in France, but variants threaten eastern region

France's average count of new Covid-19 cases is continuing to drop but the Brazilian and south African variants now account for a quarter. The situation in worst in Moselle, eastern France and the health minister will head there on Friday.

Health Minister Olivier Veran AP - Ludovic Marin

The number of people hospitalised with the virus decreased for the consecutive day on Thursday, but France’s health minister warned about the threat posed by coronavirus variants.

Olivier Veran said the variant first detected in Britain now accounted for 25 percent of confirmed new cases in France.

"Scientists fear a new epidemic if this variant were to become dominant", Veran said in his weekly press conference, adding the government would decide in coming weeks whether, in addition to the national curfew, more restrictive measures were necessary.

Veran also said variants first detected in Brazil and South Africa now accounted for 4 to 5 percent of all new cases.

"The spread of these two variants on French territory is not unavoidable", he said, adding the situation was worrying in some areas of Eastern France, the hotbed of the first wave of the disease almost a year ago. Jean Rottner, president of the Grand Est region, tweeted a map highlighting the worst affected areas in dark blue.

#COVID19 #Moselle
La cartographie des communes ⤵️
Plus la couleur est intense plus la prévalence est forte pic.twitter.com/3RrCDAlgky

— Jean ROTTNER (@JeanROTTNER) February 11, 2021

Local lockdown

Veran will go to the region of Moselle on Friday, where 300 cases of the Brazilian and south African variants have been recorded over the last four days.

The mayor of Metz, the region’s capital, said he was in favour of a local lockdown.

Contrary to its neighbours which are struggling to control more contagious variants, France has resisted resorting to a new lockdown, hoping a national curfew in place since 15 December, first at 8 p.m. then at 6 p.m., will be enough to contain the pandemic.

• France to use medicalised high-speed trains to transport Covid-19 victims to hospital

“We have to be ready to act of course, if the situation requires it” said Veran, “to protect people in this region which has already a heavy price during the pandemic.”

Health authorities reported 21,063 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday, down from Wednesday's 25,387 figure and last Thursday's total of 23,448.

The number of people hospitalised with the disease in France fell for a third day on Thursday to 27,007, the lowest since 25 January, but the total number of patients in intensive care units (ICUs) was up by 18 to 3,337.

The number of people in France who have died from Covid-19 infections rose by 360, to 80,803 - the seventh-highest death toll globally - versus 296 on Wednesday and a seven-day moving average of 407.

(with Reuters)