INTERVIEW
After more than 50 days without new cases, more than a hundred contaminations with the new coronavirus have been detected recently in Beijing, around several markets in the Chinese capital. While the authorities have spoken of an "extremely serious" situation and the WHO considers it "worrying", the head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Pitié Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, Eric Caumes, and the president of the French-speaking association "Pékin Accueil" currently in Beijing, Olivier Mourot, analyze the situation at the microphone of Europe 1.
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An excess of precautions?
The Chinese government, which takes this rebound of cases very seriously, has already ordered the closing of all schools, the reconfiguration of some 20 residential districts, the closure of 11 fresh produce markets and has more than 200,000 people tested. However, says Eric Caumes, "there must be political considerations that elude us", because "if we see things from a medical and population point of view, 100 cases for 22 million inhabitants (the population from Beijing), that seems really ridiculous. "
According to him, the Chinese authorities are "scalded by what happened in Wuhan. They do not want to take any delay on the confinement. Since it is better to confine early in a targeted way, than late in a global way," said the doctor. .
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"Going back from what we experienced two months ago"
This is indeed what Olivier Mourot, who is currently in Beijing, seems to note. "We are going backwards from what we experienced two months ago," he says. No "drastic and complete" confinement, except in the various districts again concerned by the re-emergence of the virus. "But we are undergoing increased police checks, temperature checks, identity checks ... We can no longer invite anyone to our homes," said the president of the association "Pékin accueil".
It also confirms that a "huge number of tests" are currently being carried out by the government to identify infections and take maximum precautions. "Two days ago, a colleague was called back by her neighborhood committee asking her to return to quarantine at home, because a case had been detected 500 meters or 1 kilometer from her home," said Olivier Mourot, who notes also a "resignation" of the Chinese population, which "follows the instructions given by the government".
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To remain vigilant
"What the Chinese have understood very well" is this precautionary principle, believes Eric Caumes, "even if they may be taking too many precautions, I cannot judge from here." "This virus is spread very quietly, very easily, by asymptomatic or pre-symptomatic people - so it's very difficult to spot. You have to go up the chains of transmission to break them, and I think that's what do the Chinese. "
For him, it is necessary "to be clear: in France, the virus continues to circulate" and it is therefore necessary "to be extremely vigilant to avoid that the famous R0 transmission rate rises above 1".