The Covid-19 epidemic is soaring again in France. The number of cases is multiplying to reach, according to the latest figures published by Public health France Wednesday June 29, 124,724 new contaminations in 24 hours, or 60% more in one week. This rebound, linked to the appearance of new sub-variants of Omicron BA.4 and BA.5, which are particularly contagious and capable of circumventing immune defences, is widespread throughout Europe.
The situation linked to this 7th wave of Covid-19 alerts the public authorities. Elisabeth Borne recommended that the French wear the mask again in enclosed spaces, a month and a half after removing the obligation to wear it in transport. The Prime Minister thus asked the prefects and health authorities to encourage the wearing of the mask “in places of promiscuity” and “enclosed spaces”, in particular “public transport”. So far, these are “recommendations”, without any binding character.
The head of government also called for “amplifying prevention messages”, such as “regularly airing enclosed spaces”, “testing yourself at the first symptoms and isolating yourself immediately in the event of a positive result”. Brigitte Bourguignon, still Minister of Health, had already asked the French on Monday to put the mask back on transport, “out of good citizenship”. The SNCF took over on Wednesday, at the dawn of the first departures on vacation. “We must protect our staff, we must protect our travelers,” said CEO Jean-Pierre Farandou.
Towards the return of the mandatory mask?
Several health professionals nevertheless regret that the period of calm experienced by France was not used to prepare for this new wave. “We should have used this time of relative calm to introduce prevention messages that go beyond the framework of the mask”, regretted, Wednesday, Professor Gilles Pialoux, head of service at the Tenon hospital, on France info. He also points out that with the now dominant BA.5 variant, transmissibility increases. “It is extremely contagious and makes you sicker than the first Omicron variants. So obviously, we can appeal to civility and individual responsibility. But here, we are in the midst of a rising wave. It’s complicated all of a sudden to change people’s culture,” he said.
Conversely, Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the scientific council, considered this Thursday on RTL that “the government was right not to make it compulsory because, in this crisis, you have to be scalable”. The question now is whether this increase in contamination will be felt in the hospital. “Where is the difficulty for this summer is that we have a surge with the new BA.5 variant. We expect 1,500 daily hospital admissions within a week, that is- that is to say, like in March, when the supply of care is weaker”, he noted.
“My major concern is that between mid-July and mid-August, we end up with a dilapidated hospital, unable to take care of patients, including outside Covid, with emergencies closed at least partially”, abounds in the AFP Olivier Guérin, head of the geriatrics center at the Nice University Hospital and member of the scientific council. In his eyes, “if the figures slip”, it would not be unthinkable that “a little constraint” would come back.
Effective masks with barrier gestures
Simply returning to the obligation to wear a mask would not be enough. It must be coupled with respect for barrier gestures, which the French have gradually abandoned. “We must support the wearing of masks so that they are used correctly and that people do not have a false sense of security. They constitute an additional measure which should not replace social distancing”, had thus warned in L’ Express Professor Chantal Raherison-Semjen, pulmonologist in the respiratory diseases department at the Bordeaux University Hospital and president of the French-speaking Pneumology Society (SPLF).
Faced with the rise in cases, governments and scientists also insist on the interest of booster doses. “I believe that we will hold on condition of resuming vaccination among the oldest and re-examining a certain number of recommendations to limit contamination”, added the president of the scientific council. A quarter of eligible people received their second booster shot against Covid. A rate “clearly insufficient” according to the government.