The worsening symptoms for Bachelot, 74, comes after the announcement Monday that her cabinet colleague Elisabeth Borne, the 59-year-old labour minister, had also been hospitalised with the coronavirus. On Tuesday, the government also issued new guidelines for companies in Paris and other regions placed on maximum alerts, urging them to have a maximum number of employees work from home. Nationwide, the number of intensive care patients stands at 4,634 and doctors warn that cases are on track to match the peak of 4,900 seen during the second wave of infections that hit France last autumn. President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday a new push to step up France’s inoculation drive with the arrival of increased vaccine shipments in April, including the creation of 35 mass vaccination centres. The country has administered nearly 6.4 million initial doses of the three vaccines available in France, representing 9.5 percent of the population, according to health ministry data compiled by the Covidtracker.fr site.

Source: The Local March 24, 2021 09:56 UTC