Covid mask-wearing outdoors could end by 30 June, France's medical officer says

The French government’s chief medical officer, Jérôme Salomon, said on Monday the obligation to wear a face mask outside in many areas of France could probably end on 30 June, as part of the last phase of lifting Covid-19 restrictions.

Nantes, France, 26 May 2021. © REUTERS - STEPHANE MAHE

However, mask-wearing should remain obligatory indoors, for the time being Salomon told French radio station RTL.

So far, no decision on the issue has been made by the French health minister Olivier Véran.

Meanwhile, the vaccination of young people aged between 12 and 18 in France is to start tomorrow.  

They will need to show the written consent of both parents before being injected and must be accompanied by at least one parent.

Epidemiologists say it is vital that this age group be vaccinated, if France is to reach its target of having 80 percent of the population vaccinated, enough it is thought to attain herd immunity.

It’s hoped too that there will less disruption in schooling, if a large number of youngsters receive jabs over the summer.  

Hospitalisations, deaths falling

The youngsters will all receive the Pfizer vaccine, which is the only one so far approved for this age group by French authorities.

Meanwhile, according to France's Public Health body (Santé Publique France), figures for both patients in hospital and deaths as a result of Covid continue to diminish.

There are currently 12, 480 people in hospital, the lowest number since the middle of October.

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There is a similar fall in the number of people being treated in intensive care. At 2,106 the figure is the lowest since 19 October.

2,855 new cases of Covid have been recorded in the last 24 hours, compared to 5,000 a week ago.

30.25 million people in France have now received at least one dose of an anti-Covid vaccine, while 15,76 million are now fully vaccinated.

110, 420 people have died in France since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic