The easing of restrictions put in place to combat the spread of the coronavirus is on track to accelerate.
Even if "we are not there yet", France will "soon" reach a point where the mask will no longer be compulsory outdoors, the Minister of Health said on Monday.
Olivier Véran, however, did not advance on a date, but "if the circulation of the virus continues to decline, it will be quickly considered".
“When you are outside, in the center of a big city, with lots of shops, you will queue outside, you will eat, you will meet people etc. There, as long as we do not have an adequate level of vaccination coverage, it seems more prudent to maintain the obligation to wear a mask, ”detailed the Minister on BFMTV. On the other hand, "if you are alone or a few in a very large space, very ventilated like a beach, a mountain, a forest, a park, a deserted street, then we must be able to be quickly brought back" on this obligation .
Olivier Véran also said he was reserved about the policy of the United States where the mask is no longer necessary for those who are vaccinated.
President “Joe Biden made a very important communication saying 'wear the mask or get vaccinated'.
The immediate effect, and this has been widely criticized in the United States for three to four days, is a drop in adherence to vaccination.
(…) We must be careful ”, considered the minister.
The risk of "too fast too strong"
According to him, “the biggest risk we would take is to go too fast too hard, to say: 'let's go, let's go”.
And in a month, in three weeks, say: "friends, there is a problem, the virus is increasing again, there are hospitalizations, we are closing up," "he said.
"The countries which went too fast, too soon, and which were forced to go back, it was extremely badly lived".
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Olivier Véran
Covid 19
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