A few hours before Christmas, the Covid-19 once again plays the spoilsport

A few hours before Christmas Eve, the Covid-19 is once again playing the spoiler. A dazzling Omicron variant and the record number of contaminations are pushing the government to speed up the booster dose schedule.

On Thursday, the threshold of 90,000 daily cases was crossed, with 91,608 confirmed cases. The previous record, 86,852 cases, went back to early November 2020, at the peak of the second wave.

Before reuniting with their loved ones for Christmas, the French have tested themselves en masse in recent days: the number of tests carried out last week also reached a record, with more than 6.2 million.

Because one thing is certain: the epidemic will not be on holiday for the holidays. Booming off for several weeks, it has now taken the face of the Omicron variant, whose spread is dazzling.

The government expects it to become the majority in the country soon, between Christmas and New Year’s Day.

If several studies show that the effectiveness of vaccines is markedly reduced with only two doses against this variant, a booster dose would make it possible to increase the level of protection. The High Authority for Health (HAS) thus recommended Friday that the booster dose can be performed from three months for the eligible population.

While waiting to examine this opinion, the Ministry of Health announced in the wake that the deadline would be reduced to 4 months from now and not from January 3 as initially planned.

So far it was 5 months after the previous injection.

With this passage to 4 months, 40 million people are eligible as of today for their booster dose, 22 million of whom have already done so, said the ministry.

In its opinion, the Haute Autorité de santé is also now recommending the administration of a booster dose in 12-17 year olds suffering from immunodeficiency or a serious risk comorbidity.

– Paralysis –

While Omicron is not causing waves of hospitalizations for the moment, its potential repercussions are worrying, given its extreme contagiousness.

“The realistic scenario is that in mid-January we will be at 200,000 contaminations a day,” infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido estimated on CNews on Friday.

With the risk, mentioned Thursday by the Scientific Council, of a paralysis of the company because of an increase in work stoppages and “absenteeism”.

“We will have to think about a backup plan” for the hospital, said Benjamin Davido.

Will it be necessary to remove the notion of “contact case”, shorten the duration of isolation, or even abandon the tests? These questions could quickly arise in the face of a variant spreading like wildfire.

New modalities could be decided “at the beginning of next week”, indicated Thursday the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, stressing that the government would take care to “avoid any phenomenon of paralysis in the country”.

Because “if you evict (all positive cases and contact cases) in the school system, the police, the hospital, (the company) will be at a standstill,” Gilles Pialoux, head of the service, warned on Friday. of infectious diseases from Tenon Hospital on BFMTV.

In the meantime, the bill transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass will be examined in committee at the National Assembly on Wednesday and must come into force on January 15.

It will be presented on Monday during an extraordinary Council of Ministers.

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