Should the fortnight be reduced for patients with Covid-19?

Illustration of confinement in France.

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• Currently, people who test positive for Covid-19 and “contact cases”, potentially contaminated, must remain isolated for fourteen days to limit the spread of the epidemic.

• The government, which plans to shorten this period to seven days, to ask the scientific authorities to give an opinion on the matter.

• For the infectious disease specialist, François Bricaire, this relaxation would make the measure “more socially acceptable”.

With nearly 25,000 new cases in three days, the Covid-19 epidemic continues to gain ground in France.

However, the government would consider reducing the quarantine period of fourteen days recommended for people who test positive and "contact cases".

The government, which considers that this period of self-isolation is "probably" too long, has mandated the scientific council on the issue.

takes stock of this change which could occur in the coming days.

• How does the fortnight work now?

Since the start of the epidemic, it is recommended that infected people and "contact cases", that is to say those who have been in direct contact with an infected person or a cluster (a source of contamination), to s 'self-isolate for a period of fourteen days to limit the spread of the epidemic, explains the Ministry of Health on its site.

If this isolation is not compulsory in the strict sense of the term, it is strongly recommended by the health authorities.

But why fourteen days?

To cover the incubation period, i.e. the period between contamination and the appearance of the first symptoms.

And because during this period, the infected person can be contagious, even if they are asymptomatic.

• What solution is the government considering?

But the government is considering reducing this period of isolation to seven days.

On Saturday, on BFMTV, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, indicated that he had asked "the scientific authorities to give an opinion on whether we can not reduce" the period of isolation for contact cases, estimating that “This famous fortnight (…) is undoubtedly too long”.

He had already mentioned this hypothesis on August 27, during the government press conference, indicating that he had "seized the Scientific Council in order to adapt if possible the conditions of this sheltering, and in particular its duration", saying he hoped "A green light to reduce this period".

This advice was given to the government Thursday evening, but has not yet been made public, said the Scientific Council.

According to the

, this new seven-day deadline "should be announced by the government in the coming days".

The decision could be taken "during the next Defense Council," said Minister of Culture Roselyne Bachelot on Sunday.

• Why reduce the period of isolation?

Is isolating yourself for seven days enough to stop being contagious?

For the infectious disease specialist and member of the Academy of Medicine, François Bricaire, the answer is yes.

"Overall, the incubation period is mostly less than a week", he confides to

, considering that this new period "would be perfectly reasonable, even if, as always, there may be some exceptions".

"The data show today that most of the contagion occurs in the window of the first five days after the symptoms", explained for his part the epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, director of the institute of global health at the university from Geneva, to our colleagues from the

, adding: “Beyond five days, less than 10% of non-symptomatic virus carriers are contagious”.

“There are two things, first there is the incubation time, which is less than a week for most people, although there is a small risk involved with this decision.

Second thing, the virus elimination period is still uncertain.

But what is clear is that from a few days, the virus is less contaminating, ”explains François Bricaire.

• A measure better accepted socially?

For specialists, this new deadline would be easier for the population to accept and less restrictive: "It is socially more acceptable, we must recognize that it is still very heavy to isolate yourself for 14 days".

All the more so as this isolation has financial consequences (for example when a self-employed person has to suspend his activity) and organizational (parents must keep their children and home school).

"If we were already able to respect these five days, we would probably let a few carriers pass, but it seems with a low power of contamination," said Antoine Flahault.

"It is better eight days well respected than 14 days badly respected", added Martin Hirsch, president of the AP-HP, this Monday on LCI.

Currently, "it is difficult to know if the French respect" the isolation measures, because "we control little", but the feedback shows that "it is complicated", he added.

▶ #Coronavirus: on a reduction in the time of the fortnight

🗣 @MartinHirsch of the @ APHP:

"It is better 8 well respected days than 14 badly respected days"

📺 #LaMatinaleLCI @EliMartichoux pic.twitter.com/yJPK9oCz7n

- LCI (@LCI) September 7, 2020

• A problem taken upside down?

But scientists do not all agree.

For epidemiologist Catherine Hill, "there is no justification for this shortening", the urgency, according to her, being rather than finding the 80% of cases that are not detected today.

"A strategy which consists in letting the virus circulate, it is a grenade detached, which will cost much more expensive than to do things well", she added to AFP.

For Martin Blachier, public health doctor, also interviewed by AFP, we do things "out of order".

It would first be necessary to "sort" the good and bad fortnights, because today "90% are useless", because they concern contact cases which are not really "at risk", estimates the specialist.

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