Covid-19: in the face of variants, the new 2-meter rule

Faced with the arrival of variants, how can France protect itself?

The government does not hide its concern while the United Kingdom, where the epidemic is out of control, counts nearly 1,500 deaths per day and that the Hexagon now has 200 to 300 daily cases.

The fear of an English scenario is on everyone's mind.

"It's a race against time to curb its dissemination," Minister of Health Olivier Véran said Thursday evening, interviewed on TF1.

VIDEO.

English variant: confinement could be "an absolute necessity", warns Véran

Given the greater transmissibility of these variants, English and South African, a series of measures will be put in place to limit their dissemination as much as possible.

If a European council on the issue of borders was held this Thursday to harmonize decisions at the level of the 27 countries, an opinion from the High Council for Public Health, aimed at redefining the rule of contact cases, will be published this Friday.

Until then, we were identified as such by health insurance when we were less than a meter, without a mask, from a person positive for Covid.

"This distance is widened to two meters," announces the Ministry of Health.

"As this virus is more contagious, this measure is justified", rebounds Jean-Michel Pawlotsky, virologist at the Henri-Mondor hospital in Créteil (Val-de-Marne).

"More experienced tracers"

But a question arises, don't we risk ending up with a much larger number of contact cases and therefore an overload of patients to be screened?

“It can be a problem, indeed.

We can end up with an increasing number of tests, ”continues the specialist.

One meter, two?

For infectious disease specialist Benjamin Davido, the subject is not there.

"Frankly, I don't see what that will change because with these variants, we see that even masked people catch the virus."

According to him, what is more problematic is the handmade mask.

On this subject, a decree will also appear on Friday.

"Homemade" should no longer be used.

Matignon also announces that health insurance will call on "more experienced tracers" and will push its investigations to "rake the largest number of potential contaminations".

Since Thursday, liberal nurses can also accompany isolated patients to their homes and this device is reserved primarily for "people suspected of carrying the variant".

Measurements are in addition to measurements.

Already the curfew, implemented in 15 departments on January 2 has shown a drop in the incidence of 10 to 15% this week against less than 2% in the others.

"We are seeing the first effects," said the Ministry of Health, while in France we observed a "high and slightly rising plateau" with nearly 19,000 positive cases, on average per day.

Be careful, however, ten days ago, it was relatively stable while the authorities are now seeing a slight increase as is the case for hospitalizations and resuscitations.

"Tougher measures"

But will the curfew be enough?

This is the question the authorities are asking themselves, especially as Spain and Portugal are once again facing an outbreak of the epidemic.

If ski resorts, restaurants, museums, sports halls, will have to keep wearing closed in February, the government is also stepping up on vaccination.

While more than a million French people will have been immunized at the end of January, as of Tuesday, 500,000 new slots will be opened to make an appointment in the second half of February.

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While waiting if the epidemic pressure increases, Olivier Véran, does not rule out resorting to confinement.

On TF1, he released the word.

"We could be led to take harsher measures, such as the one the French already experienced during the fall".