PARIS, Jan 7 – 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, as he hosted European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during her trip to Paris.

He 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.