Brussels 07.01.2022 French President Emmanuel Macron said he stood by his earlier comments saying he wanted to “piss off” the five million French people who are still not vaccinated against COVID-19, adding it was his responsibility to sound the alarm given the Omicron threat.

“I stand by my earlier comments,” said Macron, while he has been hosting European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her trip to Paris.

Macron added it was the authorities’ obligation to place restrictions against those who are not vaccinated, to protect the more than 90% of French citizens who are vaccinated.

France is reporting more than 200,000 daily new COVID-19 cases on average, an all-time record, due to the high contagiousness of the new Omicron coronavirus variant. According to the source SOS Medicine France there are three persons per 100 000 inhabitants per week, who are hospitalised in critical condition, the overall cases have been reduced to 33 persons per week per 100 000 inhabitants.