France cuts mask-wearing age to six 

French authorities have announced that children aged six and older will have to wear masks in indoor venues, as new cases of the Omicron COVID-19 variant surge past 200,000 for the fourth consecutive day. 

As France reported a record COVID-19 case count on Friday, the officials announced Saturday that children ages six and up must wear a mask in public and indoor spaces. 

Previously, French only required children ages 11 and up to be masked but the government has lowered the age in a bid to avoid shutting down schools after the holiday break.

Mask mandates will also apply outside in cities like Paris and Lyon which have recently reintroduced outdoor masking.

On January 1, the country reported 219,126 new COVID-19 infections. 

The uptick in infections comes as highly contagious Omicron variant has spread across the world.

The Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University reported that France has seen 2,150,422 cases in the last 28 days—about of fifth of the 10,296,909 cases it has reported throughout the entire pandemic.

Following the rapid surge in coronavirus cases, France has also looked to increase pressure on its unvaccinated individuals to get their COVID-19 shots with a plan that bars unvaccinated from going to cinemas and other attractions.

If the plan is approved by Parliament, unvaccinated people in France will no longer have the option of showing a negative COVID-19 test result to access certain indoor venues that require “vaccine passes.”