French Prime Minister Jean Castex and Health Minister Olivier Veran announced a series of new measures on Monday to curb the spread of COVID-19 during the New Year festivities, and urged their countrymen to respect the preventive measures during the celebrations. Veran said that the Delta and Omicron variants are both spreading at unprecedented rates.

The fight against the Delta strain of the virus is ongoing, but the Omicron variant, which Veran said was "at least three times more contagious," is rapidly gaining steam.

The country registered over 100,000 new COVID-19 cases on December 24 alone. On Monday, the Council of Ministers and the Public Health Defense Council both held meetings, with President Emmanuel Macron presiding over the latter.