“If you have any doubts about your state of health, if you think you have been in contact with an infected person or, if you or your loved ones have returned from one of the proliferation zones […], please stay at your home and contact your manager and the human resources department. This message was sent to the 800 employees of the French subsidiary of an American multinational.
It is impossible to know precisely how many French people are affected by isolation, containment or quarantine measures linked to the coronavirus. But more and more of them are strongly invited to stay at home after a stay in China, Singapore, South Korea or in the two affected Italian regions: Lombardy and Veneto.
Take your temperature twice a day
"I had no other choice," explains Vincent, 45, an executive in a consulting company who had the bad idea of visiting friends settled in Singapore. My employer strictly prohibited me from coming to the office. It is not very serious because I am single, so I do not present a risk for relatives, and I can easily work from home. "
The instructions from the Ministry of Health are clear: travelers returning from the affected areas "must not go to their workplace and get in touch with their human resources manager in order to implement a telework solution for in quarantine for a period of 14 days from the date of return from the trip ”, ie the incubation time for the disease.
Those concerned must also take strict hygiene measures: monitor their temperature twice a day, wear a surgical mask in the presence of those around them and outside the home, reduce “non-essential activities” such as going to the cinema, to a restaurant. or at concerts while avoiding frequenting places where fragile people are found (hospitals, maternity hospitals, retirement homes, etc.).
A decree, published on February 1, provides up to 20 days of daily allowances for exposed persons who would be forced to stay at home. The number of "quarantined" is likely to explode in the coming days. The spread is galloping. The epidemic now affects, outside of China, more than thirty countries where it has killed more than 40 people and 2,500 cases of contamination.