French Health Minister tests positive for Covid-19

Paris, Jan 14 (IANS) French Health Minister, Olivier Veran has announced that he had tested positive for Covid-19.

He had taken both a self-test and an antigen test, after presenting mild symptoms. On Wednesday, he was alerted by the French phone application TousAntiCovid (Everyone Against Covid) that he had had contact with a positive case, Xinhua news agency reported.

On his social media account, Veran on Thursday said that he would go into self-isolation and continue working remotely.

Also on Thursday, the French Ministry of Health announced that at least 600,000 people will lose their health passes on January 15 as they have not received their booster shot.

By Wednesday, 15.2 million people had received the booster shot, out of 15.9 million who are eligible, the Ministry of Health said.

Meanwhile, some 77,500 teachers joined a strike against the school health protocol.

According to the Ministry of Education, a total of 136 protests were organised nationwide, with 8,200 people marching in Paris alone.

France reported on Thursday 305,322 new Covid-19 cases detected in the past 24 hours.