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Covid-19: France tops 200,000 daily cases in new record, says minister

“The virus circulation is too intense," Olivier Veran said.

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France has recorded more than 200,000 cases of Covid-19 in 24 hours, a new daily record, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Wednesday as the Omicron coronavirus variant continues to spread.

Veran told a parliamentary hearing that 208,000 positive cases had been recorded, up from 179,807 cases reported on Tuesday.

“I wouldn’t call Omicron a wave anymore, I would call it a groundswell,” Veran said. “Given the numbers we have been seeing these past few days, we’re talking about a landslide.”

Some 10 per cent of the French population had been in contact with somebody who is infected with the virus, Veran said, and even vaccinations were unlikely to offer enough protection.

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“The virus circulation is too intense,” he said.

The minister had warned on Monday that France could reach more than 250,000 daily Covid cases by the beginning of January.

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