(Fighting New Coronary Pneumonia) Global War Epidemic: How will France respond to the accelerated rebound of the epidemic?

  China News Service, Paris, September 6, title: Facing the accelerated rebound of the epidemic, how does France respond?

  China News Agency reporter Li Yang

  The French new crown pneumonia epidemic has recently accelerated its rebound.

Facing the huge challenge of the current epidemic, how will France respond to this grim situation?

  Epidemic data indicators continue to deteriorate

  The number of newly confirmed cases in France in a single day has exceeded 8,000 for two consecutive days, reaching 8,975 on the 4th, approaching 9,000. This number is higher than the number in March this year when the epidemic in France was severe; there were still 8,550 cases on the 5th; The number of confirmed cases has reached 317,706, and the number of hospitalized and critically ill patients has also been rising in recent days.

  France's epidemic data indicators are currently among the top European countries.

Compared with other European countries, Germany has newly confirmed 8241 cases in the past week, which is less than the number of new confirmed cases in a single day in France; Italy has not exceeded 2,000 cases in a single day since May.

  The number of cases of clustered infections in France is still increasing rapidly, showing the accelerated spread of the new coronavirus in France.

The number of cluster infection cases under investigation increased to 484 on the 5th, the highest number since the “unblocking” in May. Among them, the cluster infection cases under investigation in nursing homes reached 208; the number of cluster infection cases was newly added in a single day on the 5th. 53 cases.

  According to the latest communiqué of the French government, another seven provinces in France are listed as "high-risk areas" for virus transmission.

As a result, 28 provinces or regions in France have been classified as "high-risk regions", including the Greater Paris region.

French officials require "high-risk areas" to take necessary measures to curb the spread of the virus; local governors can introduce more restrictive measures based on changes in the epidemic.

  French Minister of Health Vilan issued a warning on the situation of the epidemic that the number of severely ill patients will continue to increase in the next two weeks, and people must remain highly vigilant.

He analyzed from the existing critically ill patient data and said that the current number of critically ill patients basically reflects the virus infection in the previous two weeks, so the increase is not large, but it will continue to increase.

  Virus detection becomes the focus of the fight against the epidemic

  As one of the main measures to deal with the epidemic, France is currently conducting a large-scale new coronavirus test to screen the population for infection.

According to the latest data, France has implemented more than 1 million virus tests in the past week, and has implemented more than 9 million tests since the outbreak.

  Due to the rapid increase in the number of people tested, various testing sites are facing greater pressure, especially in areas with severe epidemics such as the Greater Paris area.

In some places, the supply of medical supplies such as testing reagents is tight.

  A reporter from China News Agency visited the virus detection point in front of the Paris City Hall on the 5th.

This is one of the main virus detection points in Paris, with 4 open-air detection stations.

The health department uses the space in the town hall square to disperse the flow of people.

  The reporter saw a large number of people lined up for screening at the scene, and they all tried to keep social distance.

The staff who carry out the test are "fully armed", wear protective clothing, masks and face shields to test for the public, and generally have simple exchanges with the testees.

  The reporter noticed that even though the 5th is Saturday, people still come to the test.

At 3 o'clock in the afternoon that day, the staff put up a "full quota" sign at the end of the team.

Despite this, people continue to come to inquire.

In an interview with the media, Delfour, the person in charge of the testing site, said that the monitoring site can test about 60 people per hour, and the preliminary count is 3,500 people per week.

  Vilan said that France will continue to improve its testing capabilities to improve the status of scheduled testing, so that 80% of the test subjects will get test results within 36 hours.

However, he also said that due to the current overload of testing, priority should be given to testing close contacts and people with symptoms.

  Ensuring economic stability is the primary goal

  Although the rebound of the epidemic has accelerated, French officials still regard ensuring economic stability as the primary goal, which means that the possibility of adopting strict control measures such as "closing the city" to respond to the epidemic is still low.

Vilan once again ruled out the possibility of re-implementing the "closure of the city" throughout the law, pointing out that France still has other means to fight the epidemic, such as virus testing.

  The French government just officially launched a 100 billion euro economic stimulus plan this week. The next step will be how to implement this large-scale plan to "restart" the French economy.

Among them, ensuring employment is an "absolute priority", aiming to create 160,000 jobs, while striving to return France to the level of economic activity before the outbreak in 2022.

  If we adopt another "closure of the city", we can expect that the above-mentioned economic goals will become precarious.

The "closure" implemented by France this year in response to the epidemic has already had a serious impact on the economy, and the economic and social consequences of another "closure" may be unbearable.

  The reporter noticed that in the center of Paris, most people wear masks according to official requirements, and there have been no protests against wearing masks in countries such as Germany and Italy.

Some large shopping malls and other places began to take measures such as restricting the flow of people to prevent crowds from being too dense.

As French officials have repeatedly emphasized recently, the French must learn to "coexist" with the virus, and the fight against the epidemic is still long and arduous.

(Finish)