The essential
Follow the events of the day live:
8:25 am. “It’s Emmanuel Macron’s electoral strategy,” according to Eric Ciotti. According to deputy LR, Emmanuel Macron “places his candidacy”. “It’s not frankness, it’s provocation. It’s electoral strategy, ”he says on France inter. Beyond that, LR deputies will vote “in large majority” for the text on the vaccination pass.
8:15 am. Valérie Pécresse “indignant”. “It is not for the president to sort between the good and the bad French,” said the LR presidential candidate on Cnews. She denounces a “terrible lack of empathy for those who cannot be vaccinated” and tackles “a president who no longer supports the French when they do not think like him”. On the vaccination past, Valérie Pécresse declared herself “for”, “as long as it is strictly limited to what is necessary”.
8:10 am. The anti-Covid pill available soon in Belgium. Even if this is not an alternative to vaccination, the authorities believe that these drugs are intended for patients at risk. “The problems usually arise in the older population with co-morbidities, those 40 to 50 years old, who end up in hospitals. The pills are an additional line of protection but only at a later stage, when people are already infected and have become ill, ”explains one of the officials.
8 hours. “The first of the irresponsible in the country is Emmanuel Macron”, according to François Ruffin. “A president should not say that”, estimates the deputy of the Somme François Ruffin (La France Insoumise) on RMC adding: “It is of the order of the obvious. It is hard to imagine de Gaulle coming to say that he wants to piss off the French. These are the words. What shocks me more is the following: “An irresponsible person is no longer a citizen”. Me, in my constituency, I am the deputy of all French people, black and white French, French people who vote for me and who do not vote for me, smokers and non-smokers, vaccinated and non-vaccinated. He is the president of all French people. He does not have the right to exclude part of the people from the national community, from the social body ”.
7:55 am. Édouard Philippe in favor of compulsory vaccination. “The President of the Republic, like many French people would like all those vaccinated not to suffer the backlash due to the fact that 8 to 10 of the French are not” estimated Édouard Philippe in the 4 truths regarding France 2. According to him, “the President of the Republic sometimes expresses himself in a sustained manner, sometimes in a familiar manner. And it is he who will say if he regrets it “But beyond” the controversy that will prosper on the term (“piss off”), the question of compulsory vaccination arises. I am rather in favor of it, ”he explained.
7:50 a.m. “We are regarding 70% non-vaccinated in sheave”, according to Benjamin Rossi. At the start of the week at the Robert-Ballanger hospital in Aulnay-sous-Bois (Seine-Saint-Denis), where the infectious disease specialist Benjamin Rossi works, “we are regarding 70% unvaccinated in shifts”. But the problem is that “there are fewer and fewer staff”. In addition, faced with the failure of contact tracing, despite “the billions” spent, “There is a real question to be asked at the level of society”, wonders Benjamin Rossi. “Shouldn’t we save on tests, let the Omicron wave pass and put these resources in the hospital?” It would be more consistent, ”judges the infectious disease specialist.
7.45 a.m. An infectious disease specialist who does not want to “piss off” but “to cure”. “It is a political speech in the countryside”, estimates the infectious disease specialist Benjamin Rossi, interviewed on RTL on the words of the President of the Republic. “I am so that people can have conscious and real information regarding what to do not to go to the hospital. (…) To convince, yes, to blackmail them, that is not our role. We are there to treat and heal people ”, continues the doctor, author of“ On the front line, a captivating dive into the heart of medicine ”(Editions Prisma).
7:40 am. Rio de Janeiro street carnival canceled. The authorities in Rio de Janeiro have decided to suspend the traditional massive street parades of the next carnival because of the progression of the Omicron variant linked to the end of year celebrations. “The street carnival as it took place until 2020 (…) will not take place in 2022 ″, declared the mayor of Rio, Eduardo Paes advancing the difficulties to control these festivities in a period of increasing Covid-19 infections. However, the parade of samba schools in the Sambodrome is for the moment maintained, for the end of February.
7:35. Qantas pilots lost control. Some pilots at Australian airline Qantas, rusted from long periods of time on the ground during the Covid-19 pandemic, make mistakes when returning to aircraft controls, according to an internal report. Among the errors listed in this report, revealed by the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age daily, were forgetting to release the parking brake during take-off and “confusion between altitude and speed”. The memo also cites switches engaged in the wrong position in the cockpit, and errors during the exterior inspection of the aircraft by pilots before flight. “Routine tasks that were previously accomplished with minimal effort now take up more time and distract from piloting the aircraft,” the document warns.
7:30 am. Four million cases in Mexico, a record number since September 8. Mexico has passed the four million Covid-19 case mark. The authorities recognize a rebound in the epidemic but rule out any new restrictions. Mexico has registered 15,184 new cases, a record for almost four months, bringing the total of confirmed cases to 4,008,648, according to official figures from the Ministry of Health.
7.20 a.m. A “cruise to nowhere” forced to return to port in Hong Kong. These “cruises to nowhere” were put in place during the pandemic to allow Hong Kong people to travel without having to complete, on their return, the two or three weeks of compulsory quarantine for anyone arriving from abroad. But this boat with 3,700 people on board was forced to return to port due to the presence on board of 9 contact cases of a source of contamination with the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, according to the authorities.
7 hours. The city of Zhengzhou in China tracks 13 million inhabitants, the focus in Xi’an “under control”. The Chinese city of Zhengzhou (center) has started screening its 13 million inhabitants following a few cases of Covid, the confined metropolis of Xi’an announcing for its part the “control” of a recent source of infection. Still, the number of new patients has reached in recent weeks levels not seen since March 2020, oscillating between a hundred and more than 200. But an ebb seems to have started, the Ministry of Health has announced only 91 new cases.
6:45 am. “We don’t talk regarding the French like that”, for Christiane Taubira. “The essential nature of vaccination to face the pandemic does not allow to insult the French, to pit them once morest each other and to designate scapegoats,” said Christiane Taubira on France Info, the possible candidate for the presidential election.
6:40 am. A new health defense council. This new health council, which is being held this Wednesday morning, should be mainly devoted to the development and examination of previous announcements.
6.30 a.m. Djokovic gets a waiver for the Australian Open. First victory for Novak Djokovic: the world No. 1, who has never communicated on his vaccination status, announced that he had obtained a “medical exemption” which will allow him to seek a record 21st Grand Slam title at the Open d ‘ Australia (January 17-30) in Melbourne. The Australian Federation (TA), host of the tournament, explained in a statement that Djokovic had “requested a medical waiver which was granted to him following a rigorous examination (of his request) involving two different and independent groups of medical experts”.
6:15 a.m. Peru facing a third wave. “During the month of December, cases of coronavirus doubled in Lima and increased by more than 50% nationally,” said Minister of Health Hernando Cevallos. The government will strengthen the alert level in hospitals and points to make a Covid diagnosis will be put in place. The minister announced that he will propose to the Council of Ministers to adopt new restrictions on Wednesday, including a reduction in the number of people who can gather.
6:10 am. The boss of the Pointe-à-Pitre hospital in Guadeloupe exfiltrated by the police. The director of the CHU of Guadeloupe and his two assistants had to be exfiltrated by the police from their offices besieged by militants once morest the obligation of vaccination of caregivers. The administrative building of the CHU de Guadeloupe, the scene of tensions around the issue of the compulsory vaccination of caregivers, was besieged and the management “sequestered” in its offices before being finally “exfiltrated” by the police, explained the Director General of the CHU, Gérard Cotellon. “I was extracted with a punch in the ribs and a huge blow to the head, I was unconscious for 10 seconds I think,” he added.
6:05 am. The debates in the National Assembly on the vaccine pass suspended following the words of Emmanuel Macron. After a first surprise suspension during the night from Monday to Tuesday, the examination of the bill strengthening the tools for managing the health crisis has once more been stopped last night following our interview with the president. Read the story of the night.
6 hours. Welcome to this live. It will allow you to follow the events and the evolution of the pandemic throughout the day.