Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced on Friday that the French health system was being placed on "maximum alert" in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic, cases of which have been detected in Sweden and then in Pakistan in recent days.
The resigning head of government held a situation update on Friday with ministers Catherine Vautrin and Frederic Valletoux, while the resurgence of mpox – formerly called monkeypox – in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) prompted the World Health Organization to declare a public health emergency of international concern on Wednesday, the highest alarm.
"Following this meeting, we are placing our health system on maximum alert," explained Gabriel Attal on X.
He indicated that "new information and recommendation measures" will be introduced for people traveling to risk areas, and contacted the health authorities so that they can decide on "updating the vaccination recommendations" relating to "target populations."
A "donation of vaccines to the most affected countries" has also been decided, at the request of Emmanuel Macron, also affirmed the resigning Prime Minister, who will hold a new update on Monday.
On Thursday, Sweden announced that it had recorded a case of clade 1b subtype, the same new strain that has appeared in the DRC since September 2023, more deadly and virulent than clade 2, endemic in West Africa.
Asia then recorded its first case of MPOX on Friday, in Pakistan.
MPOX is a viral disease that spreads from animals to humans but is also transmitted through close physical contact with a person infected with the virus.
English 
French