Illustration of a drone. - NICOLAS MESSYASZ / SIPA

  • The city of Cannes which already had its streets disinfected by municipal agents will present an aerial device on Friday via a pick-up and by drone.
  • The High Council of Public Health, however, asks "not to implement a specific cleaning or disinfection of the roads" policy.

Municipal agents in full suits spray diluted bleach on the streets of Cannes. These images taken on March 25 and 26 in the city of the festivals made the turn of the media… These disinfection operations “with Korean” defended by the mayor LR David Lisnard against the coronavirus are however not recommended by the High Council of the public health (HCSP) whose opinion was made public this Thursday morning.

A disinfection operation in front of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, March 26, 2020, during the epidemic of the new coronavirus - Lionel Urman / Sipa USA / SIPA

However, it was also on Thursday that the municipality decided to invite the press the next day to attend an experiment still using bleach: an "unprecedented operation in France for aerial disinfection of public spaces".

Even more diluted bleach

The meeting is therefore given Friday at 8 am Place Roubaud, which usually hosts a market west of the city. And the device promises to be spectacular. On site, "a pick-up type vehicle will propel a disinfectant solution over a range of 15 meters" and "a drone will also distribute this same solution," she said. The disinfectant in question is "sodium hypochlorite [include bleach] diluted to 0.5%, against 3% for terrestrial disinfection," says the town hall.

Notice: Coronavirus SARS-CoV-2: specific cleaning or disinfection of public space https://t.co/RUbN4vpZIV # COVID19 # SARSCoV2

- HC public health (@hcsp_fr) April 7, 2020

In a notice published Tuesday and shared by the government on Thursday, the HCSP notes the "psychological impact" of such measures "on the population" but nevertheless asks in its conclusion "not to implement a specific cleaning policy or disinfection of the roads ”. A recommendation motivated "in the absence of scientific argument" and "with regard to potential environmental impacts".

In a joint press release, the government "recalls that the massive use of disinfection products outdoors can lead to effects, direct or indirect, on health and the environment" and in particular "favor the appearance of resistant species "

"Encourage the emergence of resistant species"

Solicited by 20 Minutes , David Lisnard suggests that this "convoluted opinion is rather an incentive to disinfect". The mayor points in particular to a passage from the report according to which "the cleaning and disinfection of urban furniture at a regular frequency can constitute a complementary measure to reduce a potential viral inoculum". Disinfection operations "on foot" will continue daily.

And the director of cabinet of the mayor of Cannes specifies that "Friday's aerial experimentation will be evaluated in the presence of a virologist and an environmental specialist". "This is a system that we could use in particular during a major operation to clean all the streets of the city at the end of the containment," explains Eric Doré, adding that the use of these disinfectants does not was only complementary to other city initiatives.

The town hall of Cannes was in particular one of the first to organize a “manufacture of alternative masks” to supply them to all the inhabitants in the coming weeks.

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