The Scientific Council is in favor of reducing the isolation period by two weeks, recommended to people who test positive for the coronavirus and their contacts.

Several reasons are put forward to justify this shortening of the fortnight to a week.

DECRYPTION

Will the fortnight soon be halved?

In any case, this is the wish of the Scientific Council, which proposes to shorten the isolation period for people infected with Covid-19 and their contacts to one week, instead of 14 days.

But such a measure seems out of step with the epidemic situation in France, at a time when the number of cases is increasing sharply and hospitals are filling up again.

The decision could be taken on Friday, during a Defense Council dedicated to monitoring the epidemic.

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The aim of the authorities is to obtain a better adherence of the population to this health protocol.

The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, noted Tuesday on France Inter that a large number of French people do not respect the fortnight.

In practice, staying at home for two weeks away from your workplace and isolated from your loved ones can be socially and economically complicated.

The president of the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises has also estimated that this relaxation would be a "breath of fresh air" for the organization of SMEs.

A lower window of contagion?

In terms of health, the Scientific Council validated this reduction to seven days of isolation.

Because epidemiologists believe that most of the contamination occurs before the symptoms and within five days of the onset of these symptoms.

Studies show that only 10% of carriers of the virus are contagious beyond this five-day window.

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Asked about the risk of leaving a minority of contagious patients not isolated, Olivier Véran assured that there was "almost no difference" between a situation with 5% of people "potentially contagious" beyond five days and "still 2% to 4% of people who can be contagious" after 14 days.

Véran wants a priority on the tests

Given the waiting times for tests, Olivier Véran also announced a prioritization: symptomatic people and contact cases must be tested urgently, according to him.

It should be remembered that we are in contact when we have seen an infected person for 15 minutes, without a mask, either in the same room when we are inside, or within a meter when we are outside.

You must therefore be particularly vigilant in canteens, restaurants and on café terraces, where no mask is worn.