French president highlights importance of vaccination amid rising COVID-19 cases

PARIS - French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday stressed the importance of vaccination as the country's COVID-19 cases kept rising.

"Vaccination is a national priority," Macron told reporters during a visit to a vaccination center in Valenciennes, northern France.

The president said vaccination would be rolled out during public holidays and weekends.

A total of 14,678 new cases were recorded over the past 24 hours, bringing the total infections in country to more than 4.3 million. The death toll rose by 287 in one day to 92,908, data from the health authorities showed.

As of Tuesday evening, 26,756 patients were hospitalized for COVID-19 infection in France, including 4,634 in intensive care, according to the health authorities.

Since the start of the vaccination campaign in France, nearly 6.6 million people, or about 12.6 percent of the adult population, have received at least one injection, and over 2.5 million have received two injections, according to the Health Ministry.

The French government aims to vaccinate 10 million citizens by mid-April, 20 million by mid-May and a total of 30 million, or two-thirds of adults, by mid-June.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 264 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide - 82 of them in clinical trials - in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization.

法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙。[图片/机构]法国总统埃马纽埃尔·马克龙周二强调了疫苗接种的重要性，因为该国的新冠肺炎病例持续上升。“疫苗接种是国家的优先事项，”马克龙在访问法国北部巴伦西亚的疫苗接种中心时告诉记者。总统说疫苗接种将在公共假日和周末推出。在过去的24小时内，总共记录了14，678个新病例，使该国的总感染人数超过430万。卫生当局的数据显示，死亡人数在一天内增加了287人，达到92，908人。据卫生当局称，截至周二晚上，法国有26756名患者因新冠肺炎感染住院，其中4634人在重症监护室。根据卫生部的数据，自法国疫苗接种运动开始以来，近660万人，约占成年人口的12.6%，至少接受了一次注射，超过250万人接受了两次注射。法国政府的目标是到4月中旬为1000万公民接种疫苗，到5月中旬为2000万人接种疫苗，到6月中旬为3000万人接种疫苗，占成年人的三分之二。随着世界努力遏制这一流行病，越来越多的国家正在接种已经授权的冠状病毒疫苗。与此同时，根据世界卫生组织发布的信息，世界各地仍在开发264种候选疫苗，其中82种正在德国、中国、俄罗斯、英国和美国等国进行临床试验。