MASK WEARING. As a ninth wave of Covid-19 looms, the Prime Minister urged the French to respect barrier gestures, wearing a mask in mind.
“Helping our caregivers means being vigilant together and I make a solemn appeal: let’s respect barrier gestures! Let’s wear the mask as soon as we are with fragile people or in crowded areas, such as public transport”, launched Elisabeth Borne, Tuesday, November 29, while the session of questions to the government was held at the National Assembly. The Prime Minister spoke of “small gestures that save lives”, “decisive in rolling back the epidemic”. For now, this is only an incentive, not an obligation.
Elisabeth Borne has indeed assured to have full confidence in the French: “They have always answered the call of responsibility. I have no doubt that they will do it again.” However, if the tension were to rise another notch in the hospital, the return of the compulsory mask in public transport and in certain closed places could well be considered again. In any case, this is what happened during previous waves of Covid-19. Because the facts are there, return of winter obliges, a ninth wave of Covid-19 seems to be emerging. Thus, after a brief lull in recent weeks, the epidemic is picking up again. On Friday, no less than 48,629 new cases were recorded, against another 33,177 the previous week, an increase of 46%, reports The world.
This “solemn” appeal to everyone’s responsibility also comes when, for several weeks already, many health professionals and experts have been calling for a return to the mask in public transport in particular. In the columns of Parisian, virologist Anne-Claude Crémieux recently lamented a collective “amnesia”, noting that the French have “forgotten that masks are effective, this can be seen in the metro in particular, where few people wear them”. However, according to a study by the Pasteur Institute the risk of contamination is increased by 20% in the metro, 30% in the train and even 70% in the plane.
Three respiratory epidemics
This booster shot therefore comes as France faces the increase in cases of Covid, flu, but also bronchiolitis. Several experts had alerted to the applicability of barrier gestures in recent weeks. Regarding the flu, the signals are not yet red, but orange according to Public Health France, with now five regions placed in the pre-epidemic phase, namely the regions of Brittany, Centre-Val de Loire, Hauts-de-France, Ile-de-France and Normandy. As for the bronchiolitis epidemic, it started to rise again after a lull during the All Saints school holidays. L’National Health Agency warned that “emergency visits and hospitalizations are on the rise among children (+14% or +13,208 visits and +17% or +1,634 hospitalizations)” during the week of November 22.
Faced with these worrying indicators, infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido asked about RMC Sunday November 27 the “return of a strong incentive to wear a mask indoors”. At the very beginning of November, the National Academy of Medicine had in a communicated alerted, considering the return of the necessary mask. The institution was alarmed by the contaminations which risked occurring if the mask was not restored in closed places. The Academy took the side of wearing a mask, recalling that the obligation to wear this protection, combined with strict respect for barrier gestures, had allowed “a spectacular reduction in the incidence of influenza infections, gastroenteritis and bronchiolitis” during the 2020-2021 season. The organization therefore issues several recommendations, deemed necessary:
- the vaccination booster against Covid and the flu.
- wearing an FFP2 type mask in enclosed public spaces for people at risk (elderly or with comorbidity) or healthcare personnel and their entourage.
- the wearing of a surgical-type mask in health spaces and in closed spaces open to the public, in particular public transport.
- respect barrier gestures such as the use of hydroalcoholic gel.
Currently, in addition to vaccination and isolation in the event of symptoms, Santé Publique France recommends wearing a mask in the presence of vulnerable people, in the event of crowding in closed spaces and during large gatherings.
However, public support for mask-wearing appears to be eroding over time. Thus, a study conducted in September 2022 by CoviPrev and published by Public health France early October shows that only 16% of respondents wore a mask in public (compared to 34% in May 2022). At work, 70% of French people said they no longer wear a mask (or do so less often) and 61% do not wear it on public transport, compared to 23% in May. More than half of those surveyed (52%) said they no longer wear the mask out of forgetfulness, but also because of a certain weariness.
At the beginning of October, Brigitte Autran, the president of Covars, already recommended that the French wear the mask again in public transport and in populated places, without however making it compulsory. She had called on the French to be vigilant with the wearing of the preventive mask and had revealed that the return of the compulsory mask was under study. The Minister of Health, François Braun, had also indicated that the mask could again be compulsory in public transport. “I do not forbid myself anything”, he had declared at the microphone of RTLOctober 4, 2022.
Is the mask compulsory on the plane, train, metro and other transport?
In its opinion, the Covars recommends wearing a mask to reduce contamination and notes that “Germany has made wearing a mask compulsory in public transport and is considering extending the list of places of obligation”. In airports, the mask is no longer compulsory as well as in planes, “it nevertheless remains recommended”, indicates Paris airport on its site. The SNCF also ensures that “wearing a mask is strongly recommended in our stations and on our trains”. Transit companies in several cities still suggest wearing a mask. “Let’s keep our good habits”, asks the RATP. Lyon public transport also recommends wearing it in the metros, buses and trams. In Marseille, the RTM indicates that “wearing a mask is strongly recommended throughout the network”.
Wearing a mask remains “highly recommended” in health centers. This recommendation particularly applies to hospitals. The largest hospital group in France, Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) went further by specifying that wearing a mask remained “compulsory” inside “its hospital buildings” for “staff, patients and visitors” in order to protect the most vulnerable.
The law on “monitoring and health security in the fight against Covid-19” was definitively adopted by Parliament on July 26. It includes a substantial reduction in most of the mechanisms for combating the virus: in fact, the text formally repeals, from 1er August, the part of the public health code relating to the state of health emergency as well as the system for managing the health crisis, marking the return to common law. The coercive measures of daily life provided for by these regimes – sanitary pass, obligation to wear a mask, confinement, curfew… – can no longer be restored. However, in the context of parliamentary debates prior to the adoption of this health law, the government reiterated its wish that the mask reflex “become the norm again” in “crowded places and public transport”.
If the return of the compulsory mask is not there, it is therefore still widely recommended by the government which encourages everyone to “continue to be vigilant”. The advice applies above all to “closed spaces”, when there are “a lot of people, especially in transport”, as the Prime Minister has explained on several occasions.. The text of the law also insists on the need to continue to apply barrier gestures to protect the most vulnerable. On the other hand, this new law clearly specifies that the wearing of a mask will not be the subject of a national measure of obligation. The Minister of Health François Braun does not rule out “making it compulsory again in the event that a” new dangerous variant “appears, as he confided to the Parisian July 17, 2022.
Transport and shopping centers are on 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). These recommendations are also a call for caution to avoid an epidemic outbreak during the winter.