Italy coughs, Europe panics. The rapid - and sudden - spread of the virus among our transalpine neighbors, with already 230 cases including seven deaths this Monday evening, has made the unprecedented scale of the coronavirus crisis. “Yes, it is a game-changer on the epidemiological level. There is transmission in Europe, analyzes the infectiologist Élisabeth Bouvet. We have in Italy a first mystery case and, around it, many secondary patients. The lesson is that we have to prepare for cases like this in France, with no direct link to China ", continues the doctor at the Parisian hospital Bichat, while being categorical:" If care has to be organized, it reason must also be kept. "
And for good reason, not only today there is no focus of contamination on the territory but moreover, the last hospitalized patient, in Lyon, left cured. Clearly: this Monday evening, there were no longer any patients identified with coronavirus in France.
VIDEO. Passengers of a Flixbus coach from Italy confined to Lyon
And yet, the tension is still escalated all day on Monday, when the WHO now speaks of a risk of pandemic. Scholarships that unscrew internationally, police station temporarily confined to the 13th arrondissement of Paris after a false alarm, panic following the immobilization of a bus in Lyon from Milan ... Spirits are heating up and igniting until in the municipal campaign! Agnès Buzyn, the former Minister of Health, split on Monday a remarkable outing: Anne Hidalgo, her now rival at the town hall of Paris, would not have prepared the capital for the arrival of Covid-19 ! "The city is ready," immediately replied the entourage of the outgoing mayor.
Students in quarantine
The fact remains that in the population, concerns remain and measures are tightening. Thus, pupils returning from holidays from China, South Korea or Northern Italy (from the Lombardy and Veneto regions) are asked to stay at home, in "fortnight". Students from three Parisian colleges who were returning from school trips to Lombardy and Venetia were placed there on Monday. As for adults in the same situation, it is recommended for them to avoid "any non-essential outing" and to take their temperature twice a day. On the other hand, no recommendation for everyone to wear a mask every day, assures the Minister of Health Olivier Véran. He will travel to Rome (Italy) on Tuesday to "discuss a European strategy" for crisis management.
"If an epidemic were to occur in France, plans exist, with different scenarios, ranging from closed schools to militarily protected pharmacies, specifies Doctor Jean-Paul Hamon, president of the Federation of Doctors of France. We are far from being there, he says, but we could, like Italy, have less luck. I remind you that the liberal doctor who contracted the coronavirus in France (Editor's note: he is now cured) , did several dozen consultations before being found positive. Not everyone is contaminating in the same way, ”he notes.
Reassuringly, Doctor Hamon would still like to see stocks of masks arriving in medical offices. “We, in the office, are five doctors and have around thirty masks and a single pair of glasses in reserve… delivered in the time of Xavier Bertrand! However, if an epidemic occurs, we would be on the front line to examine patients who are not hospitalized. "
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This Sunday, in our columns, Olivier Véran said he had requested a replenishment of masks. The number of centers capable of performing rapid diagnostic tests has also been greatly increased. Should we confine, preventively, as in Italy? " No! Professor Élisabeth Bouvet responds in a tac to tac. It would be excessive, but let us remain vigilant. A virus is monitored from day to day. A week ago, no one could have imagined Italy so affected. "
