COVID MASK. Faced with the surge in new cases of Covid-19, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, and the current Minister of Health invite the French to put the mask back on public transport. From there to becoming mandatory?
[Mis à jour le 28 juin 2022 à 18h23] After the Minister of Health, the Prime Minister, Élisabeth Borne, in turn recommended the wearing of a sanitary mask “in places of promiscuity” and “enclosed spaces”, and more particularly in “public transport”, said know Tuesday at the end of the Matignon day. While holding a videoconference with the prefects of departments and the directors of regional health agencies, the Prime Minister called for “amplifying prevention messages” including hand washing, regular ventilation of enclosed spaces or even the use of the test in the event of the first symptoms. For the time being, these are, once again, only “recommendations” and in no way an “obligation”, underlined Matignon.
The day before, while Public Health France announced a further increase in cases of Covid in France, the (still) Minister of Health Brigitte Bourguignon had already campaigned in favor of a return of the mask in transport. “I ask the French to put the mask back on transport”, she launched on RTL, Monday June 27. The one who succeeded Olivier Véran, and who will have to give way in a few days after his defeat in the legislative elections, wanted to send a message of prevention: “Just look at a crowded station hall or train to know that d “First, you have to protect yourself and you have to protect others, especially the most vulnerable. I believe it is a civic duty to protect yourself and others.”
For two years, the French had the obligation to wear the mask in public transport, under penalty of a fine. Could such a device be put in place again? For the time being, there is no question of it, said Brigitte Bourguignon. “I will not go as far as the obligation”, at this stage, indicated the Minister of Health on June 27. The government is dismissing the hypothesis for the moment, and should only take new decisions if the contaminations continue to be on the rise, and strongly.
In mid-June, Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council, recommended “the return of barrier gestures, but also of the mask in transport to limit the importance of this small wave of BA.5 (the new variant, editor’s note)” , during his interview on European 1. In addition, for infectious disease specialist Anne-Claude Crémieux, wearing a mask is very useful in “very closed rooms with several hundred people. It can be the metro. In the street, no”, she explained on franceinfo..
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, as in “enclosed places where we are in direct promiscuity”, according to the Minister of Health. As such, 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 the government website). The government recalls 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.