France to announce new Covid measures Thursday as infection rate surges

The French government will announce new COVID-19 containment measures on Thursday as the infection rate surges nationwide, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.

Attal said the government wants to avoid major, new preferring to strengthen social distancing and speeding up its vaccination campaign. On Thursday, the government will also tighten regulations on using the health pass, he said.

He said that despite this, the situation is likely to get worse in the coming days, with the incidence rate - the number of infections per week per 100,000 people - set to rise above 200 in the next day or two.