Covid-19: in Lozère, faced with an epidemic outbreak, wearing a mask at school will again be compulsory

New turn of the screw in Lozère. In this department, elementary school students aged 6 and over will have to wear the mask again at school on Monday, according to a decree published this Thursday morning in the Official Journal. A decision justified by the incidence rate which has significantly increased in recent days in this territory reaching 106 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants, the highest threshold for a metropolitan department for three days. As a reminder, the alert threshold set by the government remains 50 cases (per 100,000 inhabitants). The number of cases has increased by 268% in one week in Lozère.

How to explain the active circulation of the virus in this department, however the least populated in France?

The “cluster” effect in schools would be a first argument.

Two clusters in establishments in the north-west of the department have been identified in recent days by ARS Occitanie.

However, even controlled clusters necessarily play on the incidence rate of the department, which has only 76,000 inhabitants.

A "relaxation of barrier gestures"

But these clusters in the school environment do not explain everything. Because an "increase of more than 500%" in the incidence rate was observed "for the 45/65 years", reports to France Bleu, Mathieu Pardell, director of the regional health agency in Lozère. “It will take us a few more days to analyze the causes of this epidemic outbreak. However, we can no doubt see that there is a relaxation of barrier gestures and a stronger spread of the virus, ”underlines the specialist.

Finally, Lozère is a poor student when it comes to vaccination coverage.

The department has a vaccination rate of 70%, six points behind the national rate for the two doses, according to the ARS.

"Which means that these 30% can potentially become infected," says Mathieu Pardell, who calls for vigilance.

Read alsoWearing the mask at school: what the latest studies say about its effectiveness

Unlike Lozère, twelve departments, including Seine-et-Marne in Île-de-France, will be able from Monday to drop the mask at school.

In total, 79 departments will no longer require it to be worn in elementary classes from next week.