Fourth wave of Corona hits France, tougher sanctions announced

TIL Desk/World/Paris/ A fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic has hit France which is spreading at “lightning” speed, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said and also announced tougher sanctions on non-compliance with the health pass rules.

“We are seeing a wave faster than all the previous ones,” Attal said while addressing a press conference late on Monday. He noted that the incidence rate has spiked by nearly 125 per cent in one week, “an increase so strong, so sudden that we had never known since the beginning of the epidemic in our country”.

“For several days we have crossed the threshold of 10,000 positive cases every day. This virus contaminates at lightning speed.” The Delta variant now accounts for 80 per cent of the overall infections in France, he added. The overall caseload and death toll currently stood at 5,931,923 and 111,678.

Since July 12, the number of departments exceeding the alert threshold of 50 infections per 100,000 inhabitants has increased from 12 to 37, according to data released by the Health Ministry. The surge mainly concerns the overseas departments, the Paris region and the coast, where there are many tourist arrivals during the summer period. The government spokesman called for everything to be done so that the fourth wave would not be “more devastating” than the previous ones.