The threat had been hovering for a few days, the sentence fell this Friday morning: Paris was classified "areas of active circulation of the virus", according to a decree published this Friday in the Official Journal. It is the first department, along with the Bouches-du-Rhône, whose incidence rate exceeds the alert threshold set at 50 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
But the concern goes well beyond the ring road since if the Regional Health Agency notes "a deterioration of all indicators in the inner suburbs, it is the whole of the metropolis that is concerned", points out its deputy director, Nicolas Péju.
The calls for vigilance have multiplied in recent days, what message do you want to send?
NICOLAS PEJU. “We are witnessing a deterioration of all the indicators, it is an important moment when we must trigger a collective awareness and mobilization of all to stop this trend and reverse it. The virus, which was in decline, is circulating very actively: we have gone from an average of 100 new confirmed cases per day in June to 600 currently. It has been multiplied by 6!
On Monday, it even climbed to 910 (260 in Paris, 60 in Seine-et-Marne, 50 in Yvelines, 90 in Essonne, 130 in Hauts-de-Seine, 140 in Seine-Saint-Denis , 120 in Val-de-Marne and 60 in Val-d'Oise).
On August 1, the Ile-de-France as a whole had detected 260 new cases. There is no impact yet in the healthcare system, but the electroshock is imperative so as not to find yourself in the same situation as in March.
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How can this revival be explained?
We are in a summer trend of loosening barrier measures. You have to pull yourself together, respect the distance, wash your hands… It is essential that the obligations, in particular that of wearing a mask in closed public places and outside when it is not easy to respect the distance.
We must act to strengthen all prevention measures and mobilize with the most vulnerable, especially during visits to nursing homes, for example. These populations are also the most precarious for which distributions of masks are in progress.
What are the places of transmission identified?
There are 72 clusters (Editor's note: at least three probable confirmed cases over a period of 7 days in the same place ) in Ile-de-France, including 23 in Paris, 7 in Seine-et-Marne, 4 in Yvelines, 8 in Essonne, 5 in Hauts-de-Seine, nine in Seine-Saint-Denis, seven in Val-de-Marne and nine in Val-d'Oise.
In one in four cases, these cases are grouped within a workplace. We are going to increase awareness among companies so that barrier measures, including the wearing of masks, are respected. We are witnessing a reversal of the epidemic. We are obviously at a time when we will have to ask ourselves the question of again encouraging teleworking in the region.
It sometimes takes several weeks to get an appointment, especially in the 30 test cities. What measures are taken to reduce delays?
Many people want to be tested. And as part of the campaign you are referring to, 1.2 million inhabitants of one of these 30 municipalities have received a Health Insurance voucher to do so. 30,000 tests were carried out in this way.
To allow everyone to be tested, the number of screenings has doubled in two months to reach 150,000 per week in the region. To be responsive, we are now setting up a prioritization system that will be fully operational on Monday and will allow those with symptoms to be tested in less than 24 hours. "