Paris (AFP)

The corridors of the Palais Bourbon are now almost deserted: the National Assembly, where five deputies and two staff members have been contaminated by the coronavirus, is now idling.

The sessions are stopped for two weeks, municipal elections oblige, and that is good, we agree at the Palais Bourbon, where a series of measures have been decided to limit the spread of the virus.

This Monday, the positive cases of Sylvie Tolmont (Sarthe) and Michèle Victory (Ardèche), two socialists, as well as of the "walker" Guillaume Vuilletet (Val-d'Oise) were revealed.

They are added to those of Elisabeth Toutut-Picard (LREM, Haute-Garonne) and Jean-Luc Reitzer (LR, Haut-Rhin), the first deputy diagnosed and the only one to be severely affected. He was still hospitalized on Monday.

Sylvie Tolmont remains hospitalized in Le Mans, Michèle Victory in Ardèche, where "things are going like the flu," she told AFP. The others are confined to their homes and telecommute, like Guillaume Vuilletet, "like thousands of other French people".

The municipal campaign has stopped for those who were on lists, such as M. Vuilletet in Méry-sur-Oise - home village of the coronavirus - and Michèle Victory in Tournon-sur-Rhône.

What do these parliamentarians have in common? Having frequented the hemicycle for the examination of the pension reform, but also the refreshments of the deputies and the parliamentary restaurants, places disinfected since and closed.

Ms. Tolmont and Victory also spent several days side by side in the Committee on Cultural Affairs last week, where they were working on the audiovisual bill ... with the Minister of Culture Franck Riester, also contaminated as the announced his cabinet Monday evening.

Alerted by the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency (ARS), their neighbors in committee took precautions, like the communist Marie-George Buffet who remains confined, according to a parliamentary source.

- no "psychosis" -

Even without signals, some who have attended the Palais Bourbon are forced to a few days of isolation, such as Frédéric Petit (MoDem, French abroad) who can be "healthy carrier of the virus" and "in no case wants to take the may contaminate its interlocutors ".

Others like Matthieu Orphelin (Liberties and Territories) only maintain their essential dates.

Emmanuelle Fontaine-Domeizel, ex-nurse, is ready to mobilize under the health reserve, which could be activated during the transition to stage 3 of the epidemic.

To remove their doubts, nine people - elected as agents or collaborators - were screened as a precaution. Three are currently being taken care of "for screening", the presidency said in a statement.

A number of parliamentary staff are teleworking, as prompted by Assembly President Richard Ferrand (LREM).

No more visitors in the corridors of the Palais Bourbon, symposia and meetings of more than five people banned: the staff is reduced and only the repair work planned for a long time continued this Monday, in this institution where some 4,000 people usually meet daily.

The situation is "considered serious" and the activity reduced "only to essential functions", according to the President of the Assembly.

The measures are "particularly rigorous", attests the ARS.

No "psychosis", "calm predominates", testifies a parliamentary source, who underlines that "the 577 deputies coming from everywhere and the promiscuity being important in the Assembly", it is not astonished by the "concentration" of cases. "We will continue to count".

Will parliamentary work resume normally the week of March 23? "Yes, we will be at stage 3 of the epidemic and people with symptoms will simply be invited to stay at home," said a government source, who wants to believe that "the schedule will run normally."

© 2020 AFP