Despite a slight improvement on the Covid-19 epidemic front, the French government is playing it safe and is working on an "adaptation of containment" on December 1, with many questions outstanding.
The executive, which convened a Defense Council on Wednesday, November 18, is faced with an equation from which many questions arise: how to loosen the grip without taking the risk of relaunching the circulation of the virus and being forced into a third confinement ?
"We are not at all in deconfinement, we are even far from it", warned the government spokesperson, Gabriel Attal, on Wednesday leaving the Council of Ministers, preferring to speak of "a possible adaptation of the confinement from of December 1 ".
In front of the deputies on Tuesday, Prime Minister Jean Castex had also warned that "braking provisions (...) will continue".
“Maybe we deconfined a little too quickly” in the spring, he admitted.
The offbeat "Black Friday"?
"The epidemic is slowing down," confirmed the director general of health, Jérôme Salomon on Tuesday evening, but "hospital pressure remains very strong", with more than 32,000 hospitalized patients.
If the pressure is easing a little on the resuscitation services, they remain under great stress: 4,759 Covid-19 patients are in intensive care, according to data from Public Health France.
A figure down slightly for the second consecutive day.
In addition, 427 deaths linked to Covid-19 have been recorded in the last 24 hours in hospitals, bringing the total death toll to 46,698 since the start of the epidemic in France.
President Emmanuel Macron will speak next week to announce on which points the confinement will be relaxed.
By then, Prime Minister Jean Castex will bring together the leaders of political parties and groups on Friday, the day after a new point from the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran.
If sports halls should be able to accommodate minors from December 1 and if worship could also resume on this date, with health restrictions, the question of reopening so-called "non-essential" businesses has not been resolved.
Booksellers, toy stores and clothing stores in particular must for the moment be content with online sales and by appointment, and the sector is demanding a recovery from November 27, the day of the gigantic commercial operation of "Black Friday" , so as not to offer it on a platter to the giants of online commerce.
"An imperative", urge two federations (Alliance du commerce and Procos), which stress that the specialized trade has seen its turnover collapse by 80% since the new confinement.
But the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who was pushing for this date, finally asked the actors of the distribution on Wednesday to "postpone" the operation, "which does not make sense in the current circumstances".
What Christmas for the French?
The situation is even more difficult for bars and restaurants, who fear they will remain closed until 2021. A disaster for these establishments but also for supply chains such as poultry and foie gras.
Should we immediately maintain the limit of one hour and one kilometer for walks, a rule attacked by EELV before the Council of State?
Then, at Christmas, will trips to meet up with family be allowed?
The government has yet to decide, even if the SNCF says it is already "ready" for the school holidays.
Beyond the health restrictions, the government will have to respond to the challenge of improving the strategy for screening and isolating infected people, thanks to the deployment of antigenic tests, after the failure of the triptych "test, trace, isolate".
The executive will also have to set up a massive vaccination campaign, while the Pfizer / BioNTech alliance announced Wednesday that its vaccine is 95% effective, according to comprehensive results, a level similar to that claimed by Moderna.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal said the sum of 1.5 billion euros had been budgeted for 2021 and 90 million doses pre-reserved for France.
Increase in depressive states
If he welcomed the slowdown in the epidemic, Jérôme Salomon worried Tuesday evening about the consequences of the crisis for mental health in the French population.
We thus observe "a significant increase in depressive states", which affected twice the number of people at the beginning of November compared to the end of September, from 10 to 21% within a representative sample of the population surveyed by Public Health France.
The increase is "even more marked among people in difficult financial situations, people with a history of psychological disorders, the inactive and young people", noted Jérôme Salomon.
"We want to avoid a third wave, which would be a wave of mental health for young and old," said Olivier Véran, during a visit to the Parisian premises of Fil santé jeunes, a platform listening.
With AFP
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