Paris (AFP)

Indicators which "continue to deteriorate", transmission of the virus "which is increasing", "more particularly" among young people: the General Directorate of Health is sounding the alarm around Covid-19 in the torpor of August .

"The situation is worrying: all the indicators are continuing to progress and the transmission of the SARS-COV-2 virus is increasing," said the DGS, in a weekly bulletin published on Thursday evening.

Main cause for concern, the number of new confirmed cases "is increasing regularly", she notes. Over the past 24 hours, 2,669 new cases have been detected, notes the DGS in its new daily report.

And the increase in cases, between August 3 and 9, "is more important among 15-44 years (+ 46%) in metropolitan France, according to its weekly report.

Defeating a preconceived idea, the DGS underlines a "number of people hospitalized in increase for three weeks especially among those under 40" in metropolitan France, in this weekly note.

The rate of positive cases is declining in some areas at the center of concerns in July, such as Guyana where it rose to 122 per 100,000 inhabitants last week against 155 in the previous seven days. But in Guyana and Mayotte, if the epidemic is "in decline" it remains "still at a high level of vulnerability". And if the rates of positive cases are decreasing in Mayenne, they are increasing in neighboring Sarthe.

Coming back to hospitalizations, 201 admissions were recorded in 24 hours, a definite increase. There were only 143 more mentioned on Wednesday. On the other hand, on the resuscitation side, the situation remains broadly stable: 374 patients are recorded, or 5 less than Wednesday.

- 50 positive gendarmes in Tarbes -

If we take a look at the resuscitation map, Île-de-France, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Hauts-de-France and Grand Est account for 69% of the patients concerned.

The death toll amounts to a total of 30,388 people in France (i.e. 17 more in 24 hours).

Behind all these figures, the news reminds us that the virus can spread everywhere. Fifty gendarmes from Tarbes, returning from a mission in Polynesia, tested positive for Covid 19, we learned Thursday from the Hautes Pyrénées prefecture. One of these gendarmes was hospitalized.

Cases have also been reported in a detention center in Seine-et-Marne, but also among employees of a Fnac store in Paris and at Galeries Lafayette.

And in Saint-Tropez, after the party, it's a hangover. The Sénéquier café, a world famous emblem, announced Thursday to close for two weeks due to two cases of Covid-19 among its employees, a few days after the curtain was lowered by other establishments in Saint-Trop '.

Since this week, the medical and political spheres have been worried. Prime Minister Jean Castex, fearing a return to a health system "under strain", on Tuesday called on the French to pull themselves together to avoid a resumption of the epidemic. He also pleaded for wearing a mask despite the heatwave and asked the prefects to extend their obligation in public spaces.

- Mask compulsory everywhere? -

Patrick Pelloux, president of the Syndicate of hospital emergency physicians in France, or Philippe Juvin, emergency manager at the Pompidou hospital in Paris, also spoke in the media to advocate the wearing of masks "everywhere" at the national level.

Faced with this kind of calls for the generalization of the compulsory mask in the public space, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran, trusting the local elected representatives and the prefects, estimated Wednesday evening on France 2 that "he does not 'There is not necessarily a need for an obligation so that we can protect ourselves.

He thus declined the "ABCD rule to know when to wear it": "A, when you are at risk, fragile, old; B when you are in a crowded place; C for closed places; D when the distance is impossible to manage ". The government also promised this week to tighten controls where the mask is imposed.

The list of cities or tourist sites where this protection is becoming the rule continues to grow. After many areas of Paris, it is the center of Bordeaux that will be added from Saturday, as well as the open-air markets of Var or Cantal. Angers combines the two: from Saturday on the markets and next Monday in the city center.

© 2020 AFP