France’s Health Minister Olivier Veran said that the country can expect to ‘turn the page’ on the covid crisis by the end of the year. The only condition is to maintain a collective discipline of citizens.
France’s public health system reported the lowest number of Covid-19 hospitalisations since October 2020 on Tuesday. Commenting on the situation, the top medical official Veran said in an interview on radio station LCI that people “must remain cautious, but not live in fear”.
On Wednesday, the day that France’s cafe terraces reopened under strict health conditions for the first time in six months, Mr Veran echoed President Emmanuel Macron’s cautious optimism.
“If we manage to organise collectively, to continue to vaccinate, to maintain a collective discipline of citizens, there is no reason that we cannot continue to move forward,” Macron said, urging the French to be as attentive as possible even as Covid cases across the country fall steadily.
If things go well, then France can turn the page on Covid-19, Olivier Veran added. The virus is under control now but the public health system and citizens must go gradually. To limit the risks, be careful with our social contacts, continue to wear masks when required, wash hands.
The health minister welcomed the take-up of vaccines that have prompted the fall in cases of Covid-19, saying that a few months ago, at best 40 percent of French people wanted to be vaccinated.
“The French don’t believe without having seen, they have doubts – that’s our collective strength. But they do what they need to do to be protected,” Veran added.
