France fears over 100,000 daily cases by December 31

The number of daily Covid-19 cases in France is set to exceed 100,000 by the end of December due to the faster-spreading Omicron variant, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday.

"This is what the modelling is showing," he told BFM-TV in an interview, also announcing that France would from Wednesday open vaccinations to five- to 11-year-olds for the first time.

France recorded almost 73,000 new infections on Tuesday, with an average of over 54,000 over the last seven days. But officials fear that the emergence of Omicron has changed the nature of the pandemic.


Veran said that Omicron cases accounted for 20% of new infections in France but up to 35% in the Paris region. He said the variant was expected to account for the majority of new cases between Christmas and the New Year. "There is one certainty. Omicron is very contagious, it will spread, and no country will be spared," said Veran, emphasising that vaccines did have an effect on the variant.