French Culture Minister Roselyne Bachelot was hospitalized after contracting Covid-19, her spokesman told CNN on Wednesday, the second minister hospitalized with the virus this week. The 74-year-old had received her first dose of the vaccine on March 17.
Labor Minister Élisabeth Borne, 59, was hospitalized with Covid-19 on Monday and was fired on Wednesday, according to a ministry press release.
“I am relieved”, tweeted Borne when she left the hospital. She tested positive for the virus on March 1.
Covid-Lockdown: France is in the throes of a third wave of the coronavirus, with new lockdown restrictions in 16 areas last Friday.
Non-essential businesses have been closed in the most affected areas of France, where people are prohibited from going further than 10 km from their home or traveling between regions without valid reason.
The new measures are less restrictive than those of March and November last year, Prime Minister Jean Castex acknowledged when he announced them last week.
Clearly, the messages did not get through. The weekend’s confusion has led to more suspicion, ”said Jean-François Timsit, ICU chief of Bichat hospital in Paris, on the France Inter radio on Wednesday, referring to the rollback of travel permits for criticizing the complicated nature of the restrictions.
“We should have braked earlier,” he added in the interview.
Recalling that positive Covid-19 cases could now require hospitalization in the coming weeks, Timsit said, “The next month will be hell.”
“We have some difficult weeks ahead,” French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said on BFMTV Wednesday morning, adding, “Covid is making another kind of expansion, it’s very worrying.”
Easter restrictions: The minister said in the interview that there will be no relaxation of restrictions for the Easter weekend, although church services may continue outside of curfew. He also encouraged the French public “not to get together the coming weekends. “
“We have to limit them,” said the minister of the Easter celebrations. “They must remain within the strict family intimacy of the house or apartment, and we must not receive friends, family, or travel.”