France's average count of new Covid-19 cases continued to fall on Thursday and the number of people hospitalised with the disease decreased for a third day running, but the country's health minister warned about the threat posed by coronavirus variants, reports FRANCE 24.
In contrast with some of its neighbours which are struggling to control more contagious variants, France has resisted resorting to a new lockdown, hoping a national curfew in place since December 15th, first at 8pm then at 6pm, will be enough to contain the pandemic.
But during a press conference, health minister Olivier Véran said the variant first detected in Britain now accounted for 25% of confirmed new cases in France.
"Scientists fear a new epidemic if this variant were to become dominant", Véran said, adding the government would decide in coming weeks whether more restrictive measures were necessary.
The health minister also said variants first detected in Brazil and South Africa now accounted for 4% to 5% of all new cases.
"The spread of these two variants on French territory is not unavoidable ", he said, adding the situation was worrying in some areas of eastern France, the hotbed of the first wave of the disease almost a year ago.
Health authorities reported 21,063 new confirmed Covid-19 cases on Thursday, down from Wednesday's 25,387 figure and last Thursday's total of 23,448.