Lunchtime News Wednesday July 28th 2021

Infection rates- Coronavirus infection rates in the south of France are continuing to multiply and are up 6 fold over the past four weeks.

Cases have increased from 40 a day at the start of June to nearly 1,000 last week.

The delta variant is responsible for 95 percent of all new infections with the 20-29 year old age group most at risk.

Public Health France says that cases in all age groups are on the rise and hospital admissions are growing.

There are concerns that pressure on hospitals could start to be a real problem again in the last two weeks of August if the current trend for infections continues.

 

Consumer confidence-French consumer confidence has dipped in July according to the latest data from the National Statistics Office Insee.

Insee’s measure of consumer confidence fell by 2 points in July to 101 points.That’s still above the long term average of 100 but more people have said that they’re concerned about their financial situation and prospects for the future.

Consumers also appear to more unwilling to splash out on large purchases such as cars with some saying that they would like to save money but don’t have the financial resources to do so.

Consumers also say that they’ve noticed recent inflationary price pressure.

 

Travel health pass-The French Transport Minister Jean Baptiste Djebbari has said that he expects the health pass for long distance train and bus travel to become a requirement for passengers between the 7th and 10th of August.

Parliament has passed the legislation but the French Constitutional Council will make a final ruling on the 5th of August.

One of the SNCF unions ,Sud Rail has said that it won’t check health passes unless the government withdraws the requirement for its members to be fully vaccinated by the end of August.The union is also threatening strike action.

 

Missing girl found-A 15 year old girl who went missing overnight has been found alive and well by a fisherman near Frejus.

Reports say that the girl’s parents raised the alarm at 4am this morning after she was discovered missing.

Miraculously ,a local fisherman found her in the sea some 2 kilometers off the coast at 7.50 this morning.

The girl is understood to be safe and well and has had a medical check up.

An investigation is underway to discover how she ended up in the sea.

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