The health situation « is very worrying in 20 departments »

The establishment of local confinements in the territories most affected by Covid-19, a hypothesis considered by some elected officials, would have only a limited impact on the circulation of the virus according to several epidemiologists.

The government is asking local elected officials in 20 departments, under « enhanced surveillance », to propose new health measures to slow the worrying progression of the Covid-19 epidemic in these territories.

A milestone should be completed within a week. The hypothesis of local confinements is therefore on the table.

The coast of the Alpes-Maritimes, including Nice, and the agglomeration of Dunkirk will experience new « braking measures » from the Covid-19 epidemic as of this weekend of February 27. But, as explained by Prime Minister Jean Castex during a press conference organized on Thursday, February 25, they will not necessarily be the last territories to experience such a fate.

20 departments which will now be placed under « enhanced surveillance ». « If, and only if » the health situation were to deteriorate, new restrictions could follow from March 6. Measures that could resemble those imposed on Dunkirk or on the coast of the Alpes-Maritimes with confinement reinstated on weekends.

The 20 departments closely scrutinized are as follows: all departments of Île-de-France, Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Somme, Oise, Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle, Eure-et-Loir, the Rhône, the Bouches-du-Rhône, the Drôme, the Var and the Alpes-Maritimes.

The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, was Wednesday afternoon in Dunkirk, where the incidence rate exceeded 900 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, while the national average stands at 105 and the alert threshold is set at 50. He announced the establishment of containment on weekends, as applied in the Alpes-Maritimess.

If Jean Castex sounds the alarm on the deterioration of the health situation, all points are the subject of more optimism. Vaccination, on the one hand. The Prime Minister announced that it would be open to all people over 65 in April, that all over 50 will have been vaccinated by mid-May.

On the other hand, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran spoke of « new hopes » offered by certain possible treatments for Covid-19, in particular monoclonal antibodies. France has already ordered doses of this « very innovative treatment » which will arrive, according to the minister, in mid-March.

If the United States are « several weeks ahead », according to Joe Biden, on their vaccination program, « the next few weeks will remain difficult in the field of vaccines », warned the President of the European Council, on the eve of ‘a G20 which should focus on the inequality of access to vaccines for poor countries on Friday, strongly denounced in recent weeks by the UN and WHO.

“I’m here today to say we’re halfway there, with 50 million doses in just 37 days since I became president,” he said. « It’s several weeks early. » However, « this is not the time to let our guard down, » he added, asking the Americans to continue to respect barrier gestures.

Washington also urged the G20 countries on Thursday to launch a real global and coordinated vaccination campaign, to prevent poor countries from lagging behind and thus slowing down the global economic recovery.

In France, the English variant, more contagious, « now concerns about half of the people » contaminated by the Covid, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced, which raises fears of an epidemic explosion. He announced that twenty departments were placed under « enhanced surveillance » due to increased circulation of the epidemic, and could be subject to local containment measures from the weekend of March 6 if the situation continued to deteriorate. degrade.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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