The state of health emergency against Covid-19, in force since March 24, will be extended by two months, according to the draft bill consulted this Thursday by AFP, whose forced isolation measure of infected people should not be restrained.
Read also: Deconfinement map: find out if your department is red or green
The bill extending the health emergency must be presented Saturday in the Council of Ministers, before its examination in the Senate on Monday, then in the National Assembly, for final adoption within a week. The state of health emergency "is extended for a period of two months from May 24," says the draft bill. It specifies that quarantine and placement in solitary confinement, in order to combat the spread of the virus, may take place "upon arrival on national territory" . This measure will remain.
The text as it stands also provides for such forced isolation when an infected person, by "repeatedly" refusing medical prescriptions for isolation, creates "a serious risk of infecting other people" . But Prime Minister Edouard Philippe indicated this Thursday at the end of the day in a video meeting of the group of LREM deputies that this provision should be withdrawn, said several elected representatives to AFP. "It would have been a hard point , " said one. "It is consistent with the voluntary and responsible isolation that the Prime Minister advocated in his speech Tuesday" on the deconfinement, welcomed the deputy Sacha Houlié. According to the preliminary draft, the prefect could have pronounced for a period of 14 days the quarantine and placement in solitary confinement "by reasoned individual decision" . The public prosecutor of the territory concerned would have been "immediately informed" and the measure could have been the subject of "an appeal before the liberty and detention judge" .
A controversial "information system"
Another sensitive subject: Article 6 of the preliminary draft provides that the Minister of Health "may implement an information system for the sole purpose of combating the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic, for the duration thereof or, at the latest, for a period of one year ' . In the same way, existing information systems can be "adapted" . "These information systems, which may in particular include health and identification data" , have in particular the purpose of "determining the persons infected or likely to be infected, collecting the information necessary to determine the persons who have been in contact with the latter, the organization of medical screening biology examinations ” , as well as “ medical prescriptions for the prophylactic isolation of persons ” . The data from these information systems will only be accessible to "only authorized agents" .
Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced Tuesday before the National Assembly that in each department, "brigades" will be responsible for identifying the contact cases of people tested positive, the StopCovid application is still under development, but not yet functional.
Read also: The "health brigades" could collect personal data
"Article 6 creates a new file which seems to me more intrusive than was the StopCovid application , " declared the leader of the senators Les Républicains Bruno Retailleau, AFP, for whom the government will have to give " insurance ” . He "also asks the Prime Minister to modify this text so that the mayors, the heads of companies, know exactly the rules of the questioning of their responsibility" , he indicated on LCI.
