Paris (AFP)

The Covid-19 epidemic has fallen to the bottom of the wave, but the constraints will harden Friday for the last recalcitrant to the vaccination, with the end of free tests for all and the obligation to present a "complete diagram" for healthcare professionals.

All the lights are green, there is no question of slowing down.

The fourth wave has passed, the national incidence rate has fallen below the alert threshold (50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants per week), hospitals are slowly emptying their Covid patients (6,629 Tuesday, including 1,111 in critical care).

An improvement that does not prevent the government from applying on the due date the final restrictions promised to the unvaccinated.

Starting with the end of free "comfort" tests, announced in July by Emmanuel Macron.

From Friday, nearly 7 million partially or unvaccinated adults will have to pay between 22 and 44 euros for each screening allowing them to obtain a health pass.

Even if exceptions will remain possible (medical prescription, case of contact, recent positive test, contraindication to the vaccine), the measure clearly aims to push the reluctant towards the injection, while reducing the bill: the cost of the tests will indeed go up. 'soar to 6.2 billion this year, after 2.2 billion in 2020.

The risk, however, is to break the thermometer of the epidemic.

The president of the Union of biologists, François Blanchecotte, expects a "sudden drop of about 80%", while the number of examinations stabilized around 3.5 million per week at the end of September.

"We will no longer be able to correctly follow the evolution of the epidemic because the incidence rate will be affected", predicts the professor of public health Mahmoud Zureik.

Covid-19: the incidence in France AFP

On the contrary, the Ministry of Health anticipates "a modest break" and "one-off" on this key indicator, arguing that "comfort tests" are carried out by "often asymptomatic people who have very low positivity rates".

- "No major risk" -

Same serenity displayed about the vaccine obligation, which will become absolute on Friday for 2.7 million workers.

Already obliged since September 15 to justify at least one injection, employees of hospitals, clinics and retirement homes, as well as liberal caregivers, home helpers, firefighters and ambulance personnel will now have to certify a "complete scheme", under penalty of suspension of their employment contract, without remuneration.

People queue in front of a pharmacy to take a Covid-19 test on August 4, 2021 in Deauville Sameer Al-DOUMY AFP / Archives

According to the latest Public Health France survey on the subject, 86.6% of staff in health establishments were already "fully vaccinated" on September 20.

This rate even rose to 88.6% in structures for disabled people and 92.4% in nursing homes.

"The vaccination coverage of health professionals is sufficient", estimates the ministry, which ensures that the measure does not entail "major risk on the continuity of the care" but recognizes that "certain tensions in terms of hospital staff can arise locally ".

As in Mulhouse, where the Sud-Alsace hospital group had to temporarily activate its "white plan" at the end of September, to face "a critical situation" after having suspended 170 agents, or nearly 3% of its workforce.

A proportion four times higher than in Île-de-France, where the regional health agency (ARS) recorded 0.7% of suspensions at the beginning of October in the workforce of health and medico-social establishments, that is all the same 1,400 people.

A person is vaccinated against Covid-19, September 13, 2021 in Paris THOMAS COEX AFP / Archives

Contacted by AFP, the other ARS all referred to the ministry, which also mentions a rate of 0.7% "based on the feedback from establishments", without advancing an overall number for suspended staff.

The situation is, on the other hand, more tense in the West Indies and Guyana, where the vaccination obligation has been delayed by a few weeks but is encountering opposition, even hostility, from part of the population.

Coronavirus: the situation in France Simon MALFATTO AFP

In Guadeloupe in particular, the health authorities denounced last week "actions of sabotage" within hospitals: blocking of certain accesses, glue in the locks, used oil spilled in the offices.

© 2021 AFP