Paris (AFP)
Make the wearing of a mask compulsory in all closed collective places, including offices and classrooms, "is a question of consistency", estimates a group of doctors on Friday, calling for an urgent "awareness" before the start of the school year .
While the mask has been mandatory since July 20 in closed public places (shops, public services, etc.) and the government is pleading to extend its use outside, these health professionals deplore that current safety protocols for workplaces "do not sufficiently take into account" the risk of the spread of Covid-19 by airborne aerosols, according to their opinion piece published online by Liberation.
"In a business or at work, at the Post Office or in progress, (...) the air circulates in the same way around us, and if it is not often renewed, the virus spreads and s' accumulates (...). If the smoke of a cigarette can reach us, then Sars-CoV-2 can just as much ", argue its signatories, including the infectious disease specialist Karine Lacombe, the president of the union of liberal doctors UFMLS Jérôme Marty and the creators of the Stop-Postillons collective, which has been advocating for months to strengthen the role of the mask in the fight against the coronavirus.
"We cannot impose the wearing of masks outdoors in certain marginal risk situations while leaving it optional in places clearly identified as the drivers of this epidemic", they add.
According to the Ministry of Health, 49% of the outbreaks of grouped cases recorded are "in the workplace".
Also, "it is urgent to make it compulsory to wear a mask in all enclosed spaces, in all offices, in all classrooms and lecture halls, and also to unambiguously encourage teleworking, distance learning and reorganization. classes with smaller numbers, as decided, for example, by the Italian government, ”they claim.
Such a measure will also "limit viral infections and febrile syndromes", thus preventing many employees from being quarantined for nothing while awaiting the results of their Covid-19 screening test, they argue.
They finally warn against the temptation to "underestimate the risk of transmission in schools", citing a recent position taken by the German society of virology.
Meetings are scheduled for Friday and Tuesday at the Ministry of Labor with union and employer leaders to adapt the deconfinement protocol applying to companies, according to an invitation of which AFP has obtained a copy.
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