French and Riviera News Thursday 10th June 2021

News

French Prime Minister to self-isolate - French Prime Minister Jean Castex has been declared a covid contact case and is to self-isolate for seven days, after his wife tested positive for covid. Castex had already twice before been a contact case back in September after the Tour de France, as well as in December when Emmanuel Macron contracted covid. In a statement from the Elysee on Wednesday evening it was confirmed that the Prime Minister, who has received his first injection of the AstraZeneca vaccine, had tested negative. The news comes a day after Castex had recently increased the number of public meetings ahead of the third stage of the end of lockdown being introduced on Wednesday June 9th.

National ethics committee questions vaccination of adolescents - Concerns about the rollout of the covid vaccine to children from June 15th in France have been raised by France’s national ethics committee. The committee questions putting the responsibility for France’s herd immunity being placed on the shoulders of adolescents.

In a report requested by the Health Ministry the committee questions whether it is “ethically correct to put the responsibility on children, due to the fact that a significant number of adults won’t get vaccinated”. The report comes after the government announced that young people, aged 12 to 18 years, will be eligible to receive the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as of 15th June.

Finance minister insis