"We do not want to confine the elderly and vulnerable today".
The words, clear, are those of Olivier Véran this Sunday on France Inter.
While the hypothesis of confinement of elders returned to the news this week, after the worsening of the epidemic, the government therefore rules out this possibility.
"I am not able to tell you what we should understand by elderly," said the Minister of Health.
Faced with this viral risk, faced with this viral unknown, we are teaching each other, the different countries.
Today, there is not a country which has put a lockdown for fragile people.
Today, the strategy that works is that of generalized containment.
"
. @ olivierveran and the strict confinement of the elderly: "this is not the scenario we favor today"
: #QuestionsPol pic.twitter.com/Zy49Xfgkd6
- France Inter (@franceinter) November 8, 2020
A little earlier, the government spokesman had already ruled out confinement imposed on the elderly.
"There is no question for us of having an imposed confinement for the elderly", assured Gabriel Attal, guest of the Great Europe 1 / LesEchos / CNews meeting, questioned on the sector of the population most affected by the coronavirus.
"No question of having an imposed confinement for the elderly, ethically it would be objectively complicated", @GabrielAttal, government spokesperson in #LeGrandRendez VOUS pic.twitter.com/ReXWx9kisp
- CNEWS (@CNEWS) November 8, 2020
"First of all because ethically, it would be objectively complicated," he stressed.
“Secondly, because it sometimes means ignoring the situation of many elderly people who do not live alone and who sometimes live with several generations of the same family in the same apartment,” he added.
The spokesperson also recalled that 30% of people currently in intensive care are under 60 years old.
"We can see that, including with younger people, resuscitations could gradually become saturated," he said.
"We don't want a Christmas on video"
With the approach of the holidays, he admitted that the French could not live a Christmas as usual, while they have been subject to re-containment for a week to prevent the spread of the virus.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
“But I'll tell you it very clearly: we don't want a Christmas on video.
We want the French to be able to celebrate Christmas as normally as possible, ”assured Gabriel Attal.
"If we are taking difficult measures today, it is precisely to be able to live a Christmas with those close to them," he added, without however specifying "for the moment" under which conditions the French could celebrate Christmas.
READ ALSO>
Why the number of new cases on Saturday is not a "record"