A health defense council is to be held on Tuesday, December 29 at the Elysee.

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SADAKA EDMOND / SIPA

  • With 12,000 new daily cases of contamination on average in France over the past seven days, the target of 5,000 cases set by the government at the end of the previous confinement now seems far away.

  • In an interview with the “Journal du Dimanche”, the Minister of Health explained that the executive was observing the situation “hour by hour” and no longer excluded taking “necessary measures” to “protect the populations”.

  • Several local elected officials in certain regions particularly affected by the epidemic resumption are now calling for a third confinement.

"We will take the necessary measures if the situation worsens."

In an interview with the 

Journal du Dimanche

,

the Minister of Health Olivier Véran paved the way for a possible third confinement.

Less than a month after the end of the second confinement - more flexible than that imposed in March to deal with the coronavirus epidemic - France could therefore start 2021 with new health restrictions.

With 12,000 new daily contaminations on average in France over the past seven days, the target of 5,000 cases set by the government at the end of the previous confinement now seems far away.

Degraded in certain regions, in the East, in Burgundy and in the Alpes-Maritimes in particular, the health situation motivated the holding of a health defense council on Tuesday at the Elysee Palace.

A stable situation and heterogeneities

Feared by the authorities, the consequences of the Christmas holidays on the evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic are not yet known, specifies Martin Blachier, epidemiologist and public health doctor.

"The impact should be known at the end of the week and at the end of next week as regards the end of year eve," he told 

20 Minutes. 

But for this doctor, the health situation is "still under control" at the national level: "We had more new cases last week because we tested a lot more.

But we must look at the other markers, the new entries in intensive care or the calls to SOS doctors for suspected Covid cases.

However, these markers for the moment are very stable ”.

On the other hand, significant disparities exist between the territories with a "very marked East-West rate of variation", recognizes the epidemiologist.

Some local elected officials have also been calling for several days for localized reconfinement.

An option swept away by Professor Djillali Annane, head of the intensive medicine and resuscitation service at Raymond Poincaré hospital in Garches.

“I do not believe at all in a territorialized reconfinement.

We have seen that this had not worked in Germany.

Who will be responsible locally?

The prefect?

Regional presidents?

And what will be the criteria to decide on the measures put in place?

This risks causing too much heterogeneity ”.

Decisive days to come

Unlike Martin Blachier, Djillali Annane believes that the health authorities are losing control of the epidemic: “By way of illustration, over the weekend which has just passed, we had as many serious cases admitted to our service only over the previous 8 days.

At the end of November, we had a case every 2 or 3 days.

Since mid-December, we had been on one case a day.

And this weekend, we had 8 cases in the space of 2 days.

The current situation reminds me of March ”.

For the two doctors, the behavior of the population in the days to come will be decisive.

The curfew, exceptionally lifted on Christmas Eve, will be maintained for the evening of December 31.

And the resumption of activity at the end of the school holidays could also play an important role underlines Martin Blachier: “If companies impose a massive return to work in January, that could relaunch the epidemic.

Recourse to telework for 3 or 4 weeks would be preferable ”.

Our file on the coronavirus

Worried, Djillali Annane advocates a rapid return to strict confinement.

“The second confinement was experimental.

The question asked at the time was: Can we maintain a certain level of economic activity and control the epidemic?

The answer is no, we can see it.

So, if we want to achieve a resumption of control of the epidemic, we must renew the containment of March but for a much shorter period of 10 to 15 days maximum ”.

An eventuality that is already feared by the players in the most affected economic sectors.

In a statement released on Sunday, the Confederation of Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (CPME) called “not to trivialize containment”, judging that it should be “the last end to put an end to an uncontrollable situation, and not a simple hypothesis among others ".

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Politics

Coronavirus: A health defense council scheduled for Tuesday

  • Health

  • Deconfinement

  • epidemic

  • Virus

  • Olivier Véran

  • Confinement

  • Coronavirus

  • Covid 19