COVID MASK. Faced with the resurgence of Covid-19 cases, some are concerned that the lifting of the wearing of masks has been precipitated. Several cities even decide to impose it again. We take stock.
[Mis à jour le 6 juillet 2022 à 11h15] He never really left us. If some continued to wear it voluntarily, mainly in transport, it could once again become an obligation for everyone. At the start of the summer period under the sign of a 7th wave, the health authorities are worried and are considering the return of the wearing of compulsory masks in closed places. On Tuesday July 5, the new Minister of Health François Braun announced that more than 200,000 positive cases had been recorded in 24 hours, knowing that this number has increased by 40% over the last seven days. With a sharply increasing positivity rate (31.1%), but above all a number of deaths up 4% over the last seven days, the epidemic indicators are red. The WHO specifies that the European countries which have “lifted the social measures” must expect “high levels” of circulation of the virus this summer (comments made by the director for Europe of the organization of the UN, Hans Kluge). In this delicate period for the most fragile, some scientists deliver their recommendations, and voice their disapproval vis-à-vis the lifting – deemed too fast – of the wearing of the mask, two months ago. At the same time, a city has taken the plunge by reimposing the mask in transport. In this situation, what measures can we expect? Will the mask be present in the Covid bill that the government is about to introduce? We take stock.
It was no longer mandatory in transport, shops and businesses… Until now. It was Christian Estrosi, administrator of the city of Nice since 2017, who took the plunge on Tuesday July 5 by announcing on RTL the return of the mandatory mask in transport in its agglomeration, but also in several other cities of the Nice-Côte-d’Azur metropolis (including Cagnes-sur-Mer and Saint-Laurent-du-Var) from Monday July 11. If some consider this measure disproportionate, the mayor of Nice wanted to warn the French about what awaits them: “The government recommends it but it will be obliged to come there”. Transport should be, as in the past, the first closed place affected by the obligation to wear a mask. For the time being, however, no government or official announcement has been made on the subject, Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne having only called for it to be worn “in places of promiscuity” and “enclosed spaces”, and more particularly in “the public transport”, without mentioning the term of obligation, this last option having been ruled out by the former Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon on Monday June 27. No firm position taken by the authorities, who therefore rely more on a logic of inciting the citizen reflex… To the great displeasure of certain scientists who insist that the lifting of this ban on May 16 was a mistake .
One speech in particular was relayed: that of the emergency physician Patrick Pelloux, president of the Association of Emergency Physicians of France, who protested recent health measures at the microphone ofEuropean 1 this Wednesday, July 6 in the morning. From his point of view, faced with the epidemic figures which are racing, it would be wiser to put the mask back on transport and the “hydroalcoholic gel everywhere” so as not to end up with a “new variant” at the start of the school year. , which would force the government to reimpose confinement, “because we can no longer stop economic or cultural life”. Assuring that “the virus circulates so much that if you take the metro over several stations, you are almost sure to have come across someone who is contaminated”, he said he was certain that the mask would eventually “become a civilizational habit”. . However, part of the scientific community oscillates between recommendation and obligation. We think in particular of the speeches of Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council, an organization which does not campaign to reimpose protection. “It seems logical, for fragile people, in crowded places, to postpone the mask. Yes, I recommend it”, he had simply declared the doctor on RTL, on June 30, refusing to speak of obligation. In the same way, the president of the Vaccine Strategy Orientation Council Alain Fischer spoke of the mask as an “act of good citizenship” in public transport, in certain places of work or socialization “(comments made at the microphone of France Inter June 30).
The recommendations of scientists and authorities, put in place since the spring, could turn into a generalized obligation on the territory. Some are worried in any case about the presentation, on July 11, of a Covid “health watch and security” bill by the government to the Assembly. This text, which will be examined in mid-July, will aim to avoid any resurgence of the epidemic, as reported TFI Info. If this law should not contain an extension of the exceptional state health emergency measure voted in November 2021, the text of the bill provides for the maintenance of the tools allowing the surveillance of the epidemic, as well as the monitoring and support for positive people Covid-19. In addition, this law will authorize the establishment of a health control at the borders when the situation requires it, with proof of vaccination potentially required to enter the national territory. If the return of the compulsory mask is not there (still according to TF1), the rising hospitalization rate (in particular the figure of new admissions to critical care services) could force the authorities to plead for its application.
For the moment, health establishments, hospitals and nursing homes are the only places that remain subject to the obligation to wear a mask. Thus, the obligation to wear a mask now only concerns caregivers, patients and visitors to health and care facilities such as hospitals, pharmacies or medical biology laboratories.
Wearing a mask is therefore “recommended” in transport, without obligation, just as in “enclosed places where we are in direct promiscuity”, according to the Minister of Health…. As such, transport and centers commercial places appear in the list of “enclosed places and large gatherings” where the mask is recommended for “frail people, because of their age or their pathologies” (as indicated by the government website). With the exception therefore of the Nice-Côte-d’Azur metropolis, where the inhabitants will return to the mask in transport next Monday. The government recalls for its part that “the mask remains an effective tool to prevent the transmission of Covid-19”, in the same way as “other barrier gestures such as regular ventilation of closed places or frequent hand washing”. “It is necessary to keep these good reflexes to best protect the most fragile”, concludes the press release. These recommendations are also a call for caution in this context of an epidemic outbreak just before the summer period.