PARIS (Reuters) – The Delta variant of the COVID-19 virus first found in India – which experts estimate to be more infectious than other variants – currently represents 2-4% of confirmed COVID cases in France, said French health minister Olivier Veran on Tuesday.

Veran added this meant France was registering between 50-150 cases a day of the COVID-19 Delta variant, which highlighted the importance of sanitary protocol measures and vaccinations to keep the virus at bay.

“We are in the process of crushing the virus and crushing the pandemic, and we must in no way let the Indian variant get the upper hand so that it leads to another wave of the pandemic,” Veran told reporters at a Paris vaccination centre.

On Monday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson delayed his plans to lift most remaining COVID-19 restrictions by a month, citing the dangers posted by the COVID Delta variant. (https://reut.rs/3gDs0H9)

France’s COVID numbers have steadily gone down over the last two months after the country eased its third, national lockdown. France has over 110,400 COVID deaths, the ninth-highest COVID death toll in the world.

(Reporting by Ardee Napolitano; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)