France now has two clocks.
From this Saturday, life will stop two hours earlier in the Alpes-Maritimes, Moselle, Vosges, Nièvre or even in Marne, unlike the rest of France.
The inhabitants of fifteen departments, where the virus circulates the most, will have to return home at 6 p.m. sharp.
"It's a difficult decision, but the curfew works, say the scientists, because it makes it possible to limit social interactions in a private circle and, as we know, this is where the virus is spreading the most" , said this Friday Gabriel Attal, the spokesman of the government, taking the example of Guyana, where the progressive curfew had been "effective" in October.
The government has classified in red the departments where the number of cases of Covid-19 in the population and in those over 65 years old exceeds the alert threshold of 200 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
In the Alpes-Maritimes, this rate, which has doubled in three weeks, rises to 300, 266 in the Doubs, 296 in the Ardennes, where patients occupy 125% of intensive care beds.
While the situation will be reassessed next week depending on the evolution of the epidemic, other departments are dangerously close to the alert threshold.
This is the case with Paris at 143, the Rhône at 150 or even the Côte-d'Or at 183. Should we not anticipate, by immediately advancing the curfew in these areas as well?
Among caregivers, the debate divides.
"I don't think so, a priori the figures are no longer really worrying in Marseille", recalls Marc Léone, the head of intensive care at the North hospital.
Same observation in Lyon, where the situation seems "under control".
"The incidence is even rather slowly falling," says Jean-Christophe Richard, boss of the hospital of Croix-Rousse, all the same "worried" by the impact of Christmas.
"We are following the situation carefully, we all fear that the holidays have started the epidemic again".
"But does putting up a curfew and concentrating more activities before 6 p.m. help?"
I don't have the answer, ”he doubts.
"Reducing contacts is our only card"
On the contrary, for Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist in Garches (Hauts-de-Seine), the “false plateau” that he observes in Paris is not a good sign.
"The number of Covid cases rises, falls, rises ... I am wary of it, because not only is this rate surely undervalued since people are still on vacation but we are entering the harsh winter, conducive to virus circulation.
"
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If this trend is confirmed, we will have to act quickly, otherwise the only solution will be re-containment.
“In this case, it will no longer be
stop-and-go
but
stop-and-stop.
"" Reducing contacts is our only card, in addition to barrier gestures, while waiting for the vaccination, "abounds the immunologist Jacqueline Marvel, in favor of" this compromise ".
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But for epidemiologist Mircea Sofonea, the government is not sufficiently in anticipation.
“Watching the incidence rate every two days to adapt decisions in each region makes no sense.
You have to have a big picture, looking at the data every two weeks.
In addition, by superimposing the measures, we will never know the effectiveness of each.
"
With this strategy, the government shows, according to him, that "there is a form of hesitation and vagueness" when it is necessary to rely on forecasts.
“One has to wonder, if I don't put in place an early curfew in this area, what will happen?
And not take action hoping it will work.
"
