France

PARIS, Jan 6 (Reuters) - France's parliament on Thursday approved President Emmanuel Macron's plans for a vaccine pass to help curb the spread of the Omicron variant after a tumultuous debate whipped up by Macron's comments that he wanted to "piss off" the unvaccinated.

Macron told Le Parisien newspaper earlier this week that he wanted to make the lives of those refusing the COVID-19 vaccine so complicated by squeezing them out of public places that they would end up getting jabbed. 

PARIS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- French Prime Minister Jean Castex said Thursday that he hopes the vaccination pass bill will enter into effect on Jan. 15 as the parliament adopted the first reading of the draft bill.

Speaking to French news BFMTV-RMC, Castex said the draft bill, transforming the health pass to a COVID-19 vaccination pass, was passed in the lower house of the parliament with 214 votes against 93 on Thursday morning.

"It is a good thing, not only for the government, but also for the country and for the French people," Castex told BMFTV-RMC.

PARIS, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) -- The French Public Health Agency reported on Wednesday 332,252 new COVID-19 cases detected in the last 24 hours, breaking the daily record set on Tuesday.

Speaking to the press on Wednesday, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said that the fight against the pandemic in France is "far from over."

"In two weeks, the incidence rate has tripled and has exceeded 1,800 cases per 100,000 inhabitants," he said.

Hospitals are overcrowded, and the majority of coronavirus-infected patients in intensive care are unvaccinated, he added.

PARIS, Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — French prosecutors said they have opened a terror probe over a Dec 30 blast in Saudi Arabia targeting a car participating in the Dakar rally that badly wounded its French driver.

“A preliminary investigation has been opened into multiple attempted killings in connection with a terrorist group,” national anti-terror prosecutors said in a statement.

The statement added that all five occupants of the car including the driver were French.

PARIS, Jan 5 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The US, Britain, France and Australia have all announced record numbers of daily Covid-19 cases as the WHO warned that Omicron’s dizzying spread increased the risk of newer, more dangerous variants emerging.
 
  Britain breached 200,000 cases for the first time on Tuesday, Australia posted almost 50,000 and France registered more than 270,000, all three countries easily topping their previous records.
 
  But dwarfing even those numbers was the 1,080,211 reported by the United States on Monday, a global record.
 

PARIS, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The government on Wednesday defended President Emmanuel Macron's use of coarse language in a stepped-up campaign against France's unvaccinated, after his words drew condemnation from the opposition and mixed reactions from voters.

Macron said he wanted to "piss off" unvaccinated people by making their lives so complicated they would end up getting jabbed. He was speaking in an interview with Le Parisien newspaper in which he also called unvaccinated people irresponsible and unworthy of being considered citizens.

New Delhi, Jan 4 (PTI) As the world grapples with the highly mutated Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, scientists have identified a new strain of the COVID-19 causing virus in Southern France.

Known as 'IHU', the B.1.640.2 variant has been reported by researchers at institute IHU Mediterranee Infection in at least 12 cases, and has been linked to travel to African country Cameroon.

However, the researchers noted that it is too early to speculate on how this variant behaves as far as infection and protection from vaccines is concerned.

PARIS (AP) — France’s government is forging ahead with efforts to increase pressure on unvaccinated people to get coronavirus shots, as the country reported 208,000 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday — a record fueled by the omicron variant.

Health Minister Olivier Veran on Wednesday defended a government plan to allow only the fully vaccinated to enjoy continued access to places such as restaurants, cinemas, theaters, museums, and sports arenas. The pass will also be required on long-distance trains and domestic flights.

PARIS, Dec 25 (Reuters) - France recorded a record high of 104,611 COVID-19 infections on Saturday, breaking the 100,000 threshold for the first time since the pandemic began as the omicron variant continued its rapid spread.

Health authorities said the number of COVID patients in intensive care went up by 28 to 3,282.

PARIS, December 25. /TASS/: The payload part of the Ariane 5 rocket carrying the James Webb orbital telescope has separated from the rocket, according to the Arianespace online livestream.

The James Webb orbital telescope has separated from the Ariane 5 carrier rocket, it delivered the telescope into orbit. The telescope will travel to its destination at the second Lagrange point for four weeks, according to the European Space Agency (ESA). This point is located four times further from the Earth than the Moon on the opposite side of the Sun.