If the epidemic seems to tremble again in France, certain regions located just beyond the border are in the grip of real outbreaks of contamination. This has notably been the case in Luxembourg and Catalonia for several days. Observers are not worried, however.
Last Friday, while the number of cases increased in Luxembourg, Public Health France observed "no sign of resumption of the epidemic in the Grand-Est region, even if the virus has not disappeared". At the same time, Belgium, which also has a border with the Grand Duchy, has nevertheless decided to classify the country as an “orange zone”. This means that Belgians returning from Luxembourg must show "increased vigilance".
Is Belgium doing too much or France not doing enough? For doctor Stéphane Gayet, infectious disease specialist at the CHU in Strasbourg, even if there is a slight upsurge in the epidemic on the other side of the border, "this represents few cases" across France. “Luxembourgers do a lot of testing, but screenings are not a good reflection of the evolution of the epidemic. Because the more we do, the more cases there are, ”he explains.
"Not necessarily worrying"
The same goes for Occitania, a French region bordering Catalonia. If the Spanish city of Lleida, a few kilometers from Barcelona, is also experiencing an increase in Covid-19 cases in France, "the viral situation remains at a low level throughout the Occitania region", estimates public health France in its latest assessment.
"The Lleida region is not located on the Mediterranean arc but borders the Pyrenees, so there is no direct connection with France", specifies Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist and lecturer at the University of Montpellier . "A Spanish cluster, even a few kilometers from the border, is not necessarily worrying if it is well managed," he continues. And the Catalan authorities took matters into their own hands by isolating 200,000 inhabitants of the region last week.
The case of frontier workers
The weekly assessment of the Regional Health Agency (ARS) Occitanie, however, warns of the presence of two clusters in the departments of Gard and Haute-Garonne, housing seasonal workers largely Spanish-speaking. "These are places where barrier gestures may not be respected or insufficient, but it is the same in companies or social medical establishments", tempers Professor Mircea Sofonea. “In addition, we are in rural contexts and there is no risk of super-transmission, as in town. "
According to the Luxemburger Wort newspaper, around 200,000 working people in Luxembourg are border workers , many of whom are French residents of the neighboring departments of Moselle and Meurthe-et-Moselle. But the clusters under investigation in the Grand-Est region are mainly located in Ehpad, according to Public Health France. They therefore do not concern these French people working in Luxembourg.
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Whether in the East or in the South-West, it cannot of course be ruled out that a few cases are imported, for Mircea Sofonea. "But it is less important today since the virus is already present everywhere in France. "
