A return to school without health restrictions, a sharp drop in the number of tests… Since the beginning of June, and with the start of the current wave of Covid-19, the epidemic has been overshadowing the speeches of governments, of media and the minds of citizens. French. If the figures are currently favorable, doctors fear that the epidemic will resume this fall.
Since the mandatory use of masks on public transport was lifted in mid-May, France has ended all restrictions against Covid-19. At the beginning of the school year, the health protocol will thus be at the “base” level, the lowest of the new health framework, which provides for the face-to-face reception of students, both in primary and secondary schools. high school, without wearing a mask.
Physical activities and sports are allowed indoors and outdoors without restriction, and there is no restriction on mixing between groups of students. Respect for barrier gestures, such as washing hands and ventilating the premises, continues to be recommended. A sign of a certain relaxation, or a weariness, the number of tests is in free fall. With 91,418 daily tests as of August 21 according to Public Health France, we are back at a level that has never been this low since August 2020.
“We no longer want to talk about Covid. We are mired in geopolitical conflicts, energy problems, the start of the new school year is coming up. Since July 5 we have been in a decline in cases, since mid-July in deaths,” analysis for BFMTV by Dr. Anne Sénéquier.
numbers in green
The figures show that the health situation is improving. The current wave of Covid-19, which began in early June, has continued to decline in recent weeks in mainland France, according to weekly bulletins from Santé Publique France.
Thus, from August 8 to 14 “the decrease in the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 continued with an improvement in epidemiological indicators in all metropolitan areas.” For the first time in several weeks, Public Health France did not consider contaminations and hospitalizations to remain at a “high” level. Between August 15 and 24, virus circulation “continued to slow, but less markedly compared to previous weeks.”
This Thursday, 19,836 new cases had been identified, far from the more than 150,000 daily infections observed at the peak of the wave, and the number of patients in intensive care had fallen below the threshold of a thousand for the first time since the beginning of July.
Towards a new wave in autumn?
However, doctors fear that the absence of restrictions, associated with the end of the holidays and the mixing of the populations to come, will cause a resumption of the epidemic. For Anne Sénéquier, the arrival of a new wave in the fall is “highly likely”, because the “seasonality of Covid” has not yet been identified and that “the risk of a variant is still present”.
The same observation for Professor Christophe Rapp, an infectious disease specialist at the American Hospital in Paris: “The virus continues to circulate, because it is not stopped with sufficient vaccination coverage. The populations will mix with the return of the holidays, the climate will change “. allow more proximity and therefore contacts”, he warns. At the beginning of the school year, Professor Philippe Amouyel, who works at the University Hospital of Lille, abounds, “the virus will find a place to circulate”.
Then, in the fall, the question of a new dose of vaccine will arise, adds Philippe Amouyel, “to increase the immunity of the vaccine and continue trying to dampen this eighth wave.”
Source: BFM TV
