Covid-19: Israel, Austria, Ireland ... These countries which are already experiencing a third confinement

For some, the Christmas holidays were just a short reunion truce in the midst of the epidemic.

And this may be the case for France.

This Sunday, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran did not rule out the idea of ​​a third confinement if the Covid-19 epidemic were to worsen.

“We never rule out measures that may be necessary to protect populations.

It does not mean that we have decided, but that we observe the situation hour by hour, ”he told JDD.

Abroad, the course has already been crossed.

This weekend, Israel entered a third lockdown, after another rapid resumption of infections.

"It is a cyclical evolution of the number of cases", details epidemiologist Michael Edelstein, professor at the University of Bar-Ilan, in Tel Aviv.

"With the number of cases increasing, we do not want to end up with almost 10,000 cases per day as in September, which is a lot for a country the size of Israel (less than 9 million inhabitants, editor's note) », He adds.

These rebounds or slowdowns in the decline in infections are well noted around the world, but local factors can also come into play. "Israeli society is quite complex," recalls the professor.

There are groups of populations that do not mix much, whether religious, non-religious, with different cultural norms and adherence to different measures ”.

Strong restrictions in Ireland and the United Kingdom

At the start of confinement, members of the ultra-Orthodox community had notably struggled to respect the ban on gatherings.

But over time, "we have seen better respect for these measures, even if there are many exceptions and illegal gatherings," said Michael Edelstein.

To limit contamination, Israelis are now required not to move more than a kilometer from their home and businesses remain closed.

Only schools are open, and professional sectors open to the public can only accommodate 50% of their staff.

Several European governments have also announced restrictions since Christmas, such as in Italy, where travel between regions is currently prohibited.

Ireland has moved to a higher stage of restrictions strongly approaching containment: gatherings are prohibited, travel between regions prohibited and the Irish can only be visited by members of one other household.

In the UK, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales and southern England are also on high alert, and their residents are encouraged to stay at home as much as possible.

After the detection of a variant of the coronavirus considered to be more contagious, several scientists, cited by the Guardian, are also calling for strict and unified containment throughout the kingdom.

"One last effort"

The Austrians have been officially confined since Saturday until January.

They can no longer access non-essential shops and will have to be screened during deconfinement, otherwise they will have to remain isolated for another week in three weeks.

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The country was however deconfined in early December.

But in mid-December, the number of infections in this country of nearly 9 million inhabitants remained high, between 1,500 and 3,000 cases per day, without any real drop.

According to epidemiologist Gerald Gartlehner, this previous confinement "was too short, and perhaps ended too early", he said on the Austrian television channel ZIB 2.

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There remains one hope: that carried by the vaccination campaigns that have been deployed around the world, as in Israel for a week, and which suggest that these confinements could be the last.

"I think that in Israel, the duration of the confinement announced (from two to three weeks), and the knowledge that the vaccine is there, that encourages people," said Professor Michael Edelstein.

“They tell themselves it's a last effort, it's the last mile of the marathon before getting back to normal life.

"