COVID MASK. In a context of strong recovery from the Covid-19 epidemic, the Minister of Health invited the French to “put the mask back on public transport”, Monday June 27. This is not currently an obligation.
[Mise à jour le 27 juin 2022 à 19h52] To put the mask back on public transport or not to put it back? This is the question as the Covid-19 epidemic seems to be starting again in France. According to figures from Public Health France, published on June 23, nearly 50,000 new cases are detected daily. Something to worry about the new Minister of Health, Brigitte Bourguignon. On the airwaves of RTL, Monday June 27, the one who succeeded Olivier Véran launched an appeal: “I ask the French to put the mask back on transport.”
If for the moment, this is not an obligation, she specified, Brigitte Bourguignon underlined that it was above all a question of “a citizen gesture”: “It is enough to see a station hall or a crowded train to know that first you have to protect yourself and others.” Beaten in the last legislative elections, Brigitte Bourguignon, who is about to leave her post, while a reshuffle is looming, has also invited the French to put the mask back on beyond just public transport, in “all enclosed places [impliquant une forte] promiscuity”.
While the progression of the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is worrying, with 50,000 cases detected every day in mainland France, Public Health France has published a new point of epidemiological situation relatively alarming on June 16. “In week 23 (from June 06 to 16), the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 accelerated throughout the metropolitan territory after a first week of more moderate increase”, can we read. In this context, reinforced by “the least systematic adoption of preventive measures”, the organization recommends “the application of barrier gestures”, an “essential” precaution to “limit the spread of the epidemic and protect the most vulnerable populations. vulnerable”. In addition, given the heat wave which recently affected the country, it is specified that “the ventilation of enclosed places must be limited to the cooler hours of the day”.
Is the relaxation of barrier gestures in question? For part of the scientific community, the lifting of the ban on wearing masks was too hasty. Yves Buisson, president of the Covid-19 cell of the Academy of Medicine, explained to our colleagues about Telegram that this restart of the epidemic was mainly due “to the relaxation, surely too early, of measures to combat the transmission of the virus, such as the wearing of masks”. According to the epidemiologist, the BA.5 variant will “probably be largely in the majority at the beginning of July because it is more transmissible”. His colleague Jean-François Delfraissy, president of the Scientific Council, also recommended “the return of barrier gestures, but also of the mask in transport to limit the importance of this small wave of BA.5” during his interview on European 1. Finally, for infectious disease specialist Anne-Claude Crémieux, wearing a mask is very useful in “very closed rooms with several hundred people. It could be the metro. In the street, no”, as she explained on France news.
Are there official instructions on wearing a mask? For the moment, the Minister of Health, Brigitte Bourguignon, gave, Monday June 27, only recommendations to the French, inviting them to put the mask back on public transport as well as in “all closed places [impliquant une forte] promiscuity”. No obligation is, for the moment, in force.
What are the recommendations for wearing a mask?
For the time being, 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. However, if transport remains exempt from wearing a mask, whether it is restored or not, wearing it remains recommended, especially in the event of heavy traffic and “for all people who consider themselves threatened by the virus” as in all interior spaces.
As such, transport and shopping centers 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 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.