Paris: France said Wednesday that nightclubs would remain closed for a further three weeks, after nearly 180,000 new Covid cases smashed the record for daily cases since the pandemic began.
The roughly 1,600 clubs were ordered shut on December 6 for four weeks as officials hoped to avoid a wave of infections prompted by holiday travel and festivities, fuelled by the highly infectious Omicron variant.
But on Tuesday, France’s health agency said 179,807 Covid cases had been reported over the previous 24 hours, far beyond the previous record of 100,000 reported on Saturday.
Tourism Minister Jean-Baptiste Lemoyne told France Inter radio that the decision to extend nightclubs closures was part of a series of new measures announced by the government this week in a bid to halt the Omicron spread.
“I can imagine the distress for these employees and entrepreneurs,” he said. Financial aid would be provided for the huge loss of holiday business, he added.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin this week encouraged local officials to limit public New Year’s Eve gatherings, in particular by requiring face masks outdoors and stepping up police patrols to enforce a ban on public alcohol consumption for the night.
Parliament will start debating Wednesday a new law to require a “vaccine pass” for entering restaurants, cinemas, museums and other public venues in a bid to spur further Covid jabs.
France already has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, at 90 percent of the eligible population. Previously, the so-called “health pass” could also be obtained by providing a recent negative Covid test in the absence of vaccination.
Taiwan Issue Will Be More ‘Complex’ Next Year: China’s ‘Drastic’ Warning
Beijing: China will take “drastic measures” if Taiwan makes moves towards independence, a Beijing official warned on Wednesday, adding that Taiwan’s provocations and outside meddling could intensify next year.
China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory and in the past two years has stepped up military and diplomatic pressure to assert its sovereignty claim, fuelling anger in Taipei and concern in Washington.
China was willing to try its utmost to seek peaceful reunification with Taiwan but would act if any red lines on independence were crossed, Ma Xiaoguang, spokesman of the Taiwan Affairs Office, told a media briefing.
“If separatist forces in Taiwan seeking independence provoke, exert force or even break through any red line, we will have to take drastic measures,” Ma said.
Taiwan has emerged as a key factor in strained relations between Taiwan and the United States, the island’s most important international backer and arms supplier despite the absence of formal diplomatic ties.
China regularly describes the island as the most sensitive issue in its ties with the United States.
Ma said provocation by pro-independence forces and “external intervention” could grow “sharper and more intense” in coming months.
“Next year, the Taiwan Strait situation will become more complex and severe,” he said.
Beijing has sent repeated air missions over the Taiwan Strait in recent months to pressure Taiwan. It has said it will not give in to threats.
While the United States recognises only one China, it is required by law to provide Taiwan with the means to defend itself and has long followed a policy of “strategic ambiguity” on whether it would intervene militarily to protect Taiwan in the event of a Chinese attack.
The defeated Republic of China government fled to Taiwan in 1949 after losing a civil war with the Communists, who established the People’s Republic of China.
