Will rue de Paradis be a new open-air cluster? Here in Paris, but also in Nantes, Lyon or Bordeaux, scenes of jubilation filled the streets on Sunday June 21 during the traditional Fête de la musique. Merry night owls singing at the top of their voices - and exchanging postilions -, tight-fitting dancers, kisses that snap to the rhythm of electro… far from the barrier gestures imposed against the Covid-19 and fears of a second wave of the epidemic. "I am very worried about what will happen. To find out, we will have to wait ten days, the time for the virus to incubate, ”says Christine Rouzioux, professor of virology and member of the Academy of Medicine. A month and a half after the start of the deconfinement in France, life resumes its rights between major events and the need to meet on crowded terraces.
Have we burned the steps? "No, all the indicators are green! Exclaims Karine Lacombe, however deemed to be cautious. And the figures for this Monday, June 22 still prove it: 701 people are hospitalized in intensive care, 26 fewer than Friday, and 23 additional deaths in hospitals have been recorded since Sunday. According to the head of infectious diseases at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris, a distinction must be made between indoor and outdoor gatherings. “In the open air, the risk of transmission is very low. This has nothing to do with what we observe in workers' homes, nursing homes or slaughterhouses, closed structures, poorly ventilated, where we spend a lot of time, argues the doctor. Outside, the air circulates and it is this difference that is important ”.
VIDEO. Music Festival: the police evacuate the crowded Canal Saint-Martin
Isn't she who has experienced patient flows in her department worried about the consequences of this summer party? "I remind you that these are mostly young people and that in Ile-de-France, where we mainly saw these images, 12% of the population is immune to Covid, this is not negligible".
"I'm more worried about giving up teleworking"
At the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital in Paris, the boss of infectious diseases, Eric Caumes, hesitates before saying: "Certainly, we can say that it is not reasonable, but at the same time, I understand. Stop stigmatizing young people! " However, there is no question of reopening nightclubs, a closed place, a vector of serial contamination. In Seoul, South Korea, a young man of 29, who had visited five bars and nightclubs in the city, alone infected ... 86 people.
But for this doctor, the debate is not there. We must rather focus on the sometimes contradictory rules of deconfinement. “I am much more worried about the hasty abandonment of telework in the workplace. People will crowd in ten in open spaces, where often you barely open the windows, it's big no matter what. Certain injunctions are paradoxical, and it is not the first time… ”.
"Increase surveillance and the number of tests"
If the epidemic is at its lowest, there are still some signs that sound like a warning. The new contaminations in Beijing thus put China in turmoil. And in France, "the hypothesis of a reconfiguration" in Guyana is envisaged, warns Matignon, while the direction of Health speaks this Monday evening of an "alarming" situation. In metropolitan France too, Normandy has crossed the alert threshold and contamination continues to rise, with the discovery of five new epidemic outbreaks for the day on Monday.
How to avoid a general rebound in France? "To ban all gatherings is complicated," says virologist Christine Rouzioux. We must therefore increase surveillance and the number of tests. ” But the doctor calls everyone to their responsibility. Those who celebrated the Fête de la musique should not forget the people at risk around them. “At the slightest symptom, they must imperatively be tested. The temptation not to do it is there, but it is essential ”.
