They absolutely wanted to leave before being prevented from doing so for several weeks. Monday, when rumors of a containment of all or part of the country to fight against the coronavirus were becoming more and more pressing, many Parisians left the capital to go and settle in the countryside or in the provinces.
VIDEO. Coronavirus: they leave Paris before the reinforced confinement
Île-de-France is the second region most affected by Covid-19. According to the doctor Bruno Grandbastien, president of the French Society of hospital hygiene (SF2H), these Parisians will absolutely have to respect the new measures, at the risk if not to spread the virus in areas with little impact.
Are these departures likely to accelerate the spread of the virus in certain regions?
Insofar as there are the same rules of confinement on the whole territory, even if these Parisians will find themselves in a sector where there are much less cases, the risk exists but it is not considerable. So it will not be a disaster ... provided that the instructions to stop social life are fully respected.
These departures would have been a very big problem if containment had only been implemented in the most affected areas, such as Ile-de-France or Alsace, and not in the rest of the country (up to Monday evening, we did not know that this would apply everywhere in France, note).
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Are train departures potentially more problematic?
Yes, because there is greater proximity in the means of transport, even if the journey takes only a few hours. Social distancing is the most important measure to respect. So, necessarily, the train increases the risk of transmission.
It is not because we deposit the virus on a handle of a car or building door that it will immediately cause a spread, but the risk is much greater if we gather several dozen people in the same place .
Unknowingly infected people have also been able to leave Paris. Do we know how many asymptomatic patients there are in France?
No, because we don't test everyone. But we have certain benchmarks with South Korea, which has offered massive screening, to a large part of its population. The fatality rate in this country appears to be ten times lower than in Italy and three times lower than in France.
Anyway, I'm not sure that the benefit / risk balance of all these departures necessarily leans on the wrong side.
What do you mean ?
If everyone had remained confined to Paris, we might have had more sprains at the lockers. There would have been more temptations and opportunities to meet people than outside the capital.
