Paris: France is facing a new wave of COVID-19 infections fuelled by new variants of the disease, French vaccination chief Alain Fischer said on Wednesday, as daily new cases reached an almost two-month peak the day before at more than 95,000.
Speaking on France 2 television, he said there was no doubt there was once again an upsurge of the pandemic in the country, adding he was personally in favour of reinstating mandatory face mask wearing on public transport.
“The question is: ‘what intensity does this wave have?’” Fischer said.
Other European countries, especially Portugal, are also seeing an increase, due two new Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, which, according to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, are likely to become dominant in the region.
The variants do not appear to carry a higher risk of severe disease than other forms of Omicron but as they are somewhat more infectious than the latter, it could lead to an increase in hospitalisations and deaths, the ECDC said.
There is traditionally a two-week delay between cases and hospitalisation trends and then a similar delay regarding COVID-deaths.
New infections have been steadily rising since the end of May in France, with the seven-day moving average of daily new cases almost tripling between the May 27 figure of 17,705 and Tuesday’s 50,402.
That total is nonetheless still seven times lower than the 366,179 record reached at the start of the year.
The number of people hospitalised for the disease fell to a six-month low of 13,876 on Saturday but it has increased by 458 over the last three days, at 14,334, an almost three-week high.
France’s COVID death toll rose by 56 over 24 hours on Tuesday, to reach 149,162.
Denmark offers fourth vaccine dose to over-50s
Denmark’s government said Wednesday the country will begin offering a fourth dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to risk groups next week and all over-50s after the summer, amid the emergence of a new variant.
“Authorities believe the new variant is more infectious than the previous one, which is why we are acting now... to protect the most vulnerable and the elderly”, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told reporters.
She said those most at risk would be able to receive a fourth dose starting next week.
The Omicron subvariant BA.5 now accounts for 59 percent of new cases in Denmark, which has registered more than 3.1 million infections since the beginning of the pandemic in a country of 5.8 million people.
Denmark, which paused its vaccination campaign at the end of April, said the campaign would scale up after the summer.
“Health authorities have recommended a revaccination of 2.5 million Danes in the autumn”, Fredriksen said.
The fourth dose will be offered to all over-50s as of October 1. Around 62 percent of Danes have already received a third dose.
The Scandinavian country lifted all of its corona restrictions on February and has no plans to reintroduce them.
“Our strategy is a society without restrictions, that is why we need to prevent the illness” more than the spread of the infection, the head of Denmark’s National Board of Health, Soren Brostrom, told reporters at the same press conference.
He urged people with symptoms to test themselves and isolate if their test is positive.
