President Macron to address nation Monday July 12 on Covid situation

He will speak at 20:00 after a meeting with ministers. Covid-19 cases have risen sharply in the past week, but hospital deaths and entries into intensive care have dropped

President Emmanuel Macron
President Emmanuel Macron will speak on the Covid-19 situation in France on Monday evening

President Emmanuel Macron will address the nation on Monday (July 12) at 20:00 on the topic of the Covid-19 situation in France. He is also expected to talk about his plans for the final year of his five-year term.

The average number of daily Covid-19 cases in France has increased by 52% from last week, figures from website Covidtracker.fr show, which uses official government data.

The number of people dying from Covid-19 in hospitals and the number of people in intensive care units for Covid-19 have dropped compared to last week.

There have been 4,580 new reported cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.

Mr Macron’s speech will follow a Covid-19 meeting that he will hold with top government ministers on Monday morning.

The meeting agenda will include topics such as whether extra restrictions will be introduced for the worst-hit areas of the country, whether to introduce obligatory vaccination for care workers, and questions on extending the pass sanitaire rules to other situations.

Health Minister Oliver Véran said yesterday (July 9) that the Delta variant of Covid-19 would become the dominant strain in France “probably by this weekend”. It is 60% more contagious than other strains of Covid-19, Mr Véran said.

Mr Macron is also expected to talk about government reforms, such as a pensions reform, and France’s post-Covid economic recovery plan.