New Cases Of COVID-19 Infection Above 26 Thousand Per Day, French PM Does Not Want To Lockdown

Illustration. (Wikimedia Commons/Alberto Giuliani)

JAKARTA - French Prime Minister (PM) Jean Castex said his government will do everything it can to avoid the lockdown due to the increase in new cases of COVID-19 infection, in his statement, Sunday, March 14 local time.

These efforts were carried out in line with increasing pressure on hospitals because the new COVID-19 infection cases in the Model Country were still above 26 thousand.

The French government has so far resisted pressure from some health experts regarding the imposition of a third lockdown in the face of an increasing number of new cases of COVID-19 infection.

Instead, the French Government chose to impose a national curfew starting at 6 p.m., closing the weekend in regions battling the new COVID-19 infection, and closing large shopping malls.

“We have to use all available weapons to avoid lockdown. I've never hidden it, let's vaccinate, protect ourselves, get tested," Castex said in an interview on the Twitch website, as reported by Reuters.

The health ministry reported on Sunday 26,343 new cases of COVID-19 infection, down from 29,759 the previous day, while the number of people who died from the virus rose by 140 to a total of 90,429.

The number of people in intensive care units edged up 57 to 4,127, while emergency resuscitation units were running at nearly 82 percent of capacity, the highest since late November when France was in the second lockdown.

"The situation is not getting better, there is a higher number of infections and the hospital is very burdened with many patients, whose average age is getting lower and who don't always have comorbidities," said Castex.

The government plans to transfer about 100 patients this week by air or special trains from the greater Paris area to other cities to help ease pressure on hospitals in the capital.

Meanwhile, France's vaccination program accelerated with 67,134 first shots on Sunday bringing the total to 5,128,872 or 7.7 percent of the population, the health ministry said. About 2,239,389 have received the second injection.