France to prepare 'white plan' to deal with medical emergency amid Omicron COVID threat

Amid soaring cases of the new COVID variant Omicron, France will prepare a "white plan" to deal with the medical emergency like situation, reported Sputnik. Citing the statement of France Health Minister Olivier Veran, the news agency said that the country has been battling with limited medical resources and soaring cases. He informed that every 6 minutes, a critically COVID-19 patient got admitted to the hospital, leading to the heavy utilisation of the hospital resources. According to him, earlier, the record was one patient every 10 minutes. "The white plan will probably be presented throughout the nation in the next few days as it has been adopted in a state after state," Sputnik quoted Veran as saying to the France 2 television channel.

He informed that the move was essential in order to mobilize the medical resources such as health staff, ICU beds, ventilators, and other emergency services. The France Health Minister also indicated taking help from the private sector to deal with the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the tremendous increase in the COVID cases, he ruled out any possibilities of invoking a complete lockdown or stringent measures.

According to the Health Minister, the citizens knew how to live with the virus and added the government was planning to accelerate the inoculation rate in the next two to three days.  It is worth mentioning the country had reported the first case of the Omicron variant in mainland France on December 2 when a 50-year-old tested positive after returning from a trip to Nigeria.

France to demand negative COVID report regardless of vaccination status

In a bid to curb the spread of the new COVID strain, the country has decided to amp up its inter-border travel restrictions. Speaking at the weekly Defence Council meeting, French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal informed that all visitors from countries outside the European Union (EU) will need to provide mandatory negative COVID reports on arrival, regardless of their vaccination status beginning from the weekend, Independent UK reported. The results could be either from a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) or antigen test taken within 48 hours before arrival.