After a comeback marked by a memorable failure in the launch of the vaccine campaign, will the government rectify the situation when the country risks suffering a new epidemic outbreak?
The next few days will in any case be decisive in more ways than one.
First, because the consolidated figures for contamination during the Christmas and New Year holidays will finally arrive on the office of Minister of Health Olivier Véran.
And then because the arrival on French territory of a new variant of Covid-19 from the United Kingdom is no longer in doubt.
"The week ahead is, in fact, decisive, in the sense that France is in an epidemiological situation of extreme instability and could tip over into exponential growth", underlines epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, for whom this growth " would again mean a loss of control over the epidemic which would require in the short term the implementation of new firm containment measures to avoid massive congestion of hospitals.
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"If there are decisions to be made, it is now"
“This week, we're really going to get into the tough stuff.
The news will focus more on the epidemiological subject than on the vaccine.
We can see it clearly with the number of contaminations which increases, more than 20,000 per day since the end of last week ", we confess to the Ministry of Health, adding that" if there are important decisions to be taken , it will be now ”.
Most likely on the occasion of a new press conference by Jean Castex, Thursday, January 14.
Tightening of the curfew, additional closings of businesses, improvements in schools, new confinement?
“Everything will be put on the table, in principle.
Even if the confinement hypothesis is clearly not the solution envisaged at this stage, ”specifies the Elysee.
Very annoyed in recent days by the controversy over vaccines - "There was a lack of clarity in the explanation", himself recognized Olivier Véran Sunday on Europe 1 -, Emmanuel Macron will take control at the start of week.
According to our information, a "vaccine meeting" is also scheduled for Monday, January 11, at the end of the afternoon, with the main ministers concerned, but also Jérôme Salomon, the Director General of Health, and Professor Alain Fischer , the government's Mister Vaccine.
In the morning, it is Jean Castex who will for his part be in charge, during a meeting in Matignon with the group leaders of the National Assembly and the Senate within the framework of "the parliamentary liaison committee" .
Then a health defense council should take place in the middle of the week, probably Wednesday.
A new opinion from the scientific council
In the coming days, a new highly anticipated opinion from the Scientific Council on the strategy to be followed in the next three months will also be made public.
He will address the question of the epidemic situation after the holidays, the measures to be taken, but also the English variant.
This new, more contagious strain, which has forced England to barricade itself, has already been identified in Marseille in at least eight people within an “extended” family cluster, in the words of the prefect of Bouches-du-Rhône.
A new case has been spotted in the Hautes-Alpes.
“There are definitely a lot more cases.
A thousand, even several thousand, in France at the moment ”, reacts the epidemiologist Pascal Crépey, specifying that the study of the National Reference Center of the respiratory viruses of Lyon, expected at the beginning of the week, will make it possible to estimate the number of suspected cases in our territory.
"There is no urgent need to re-define"
As, for the moment, the Hexagon is not yet very affected, according to the expert, it is therefore necessary to accelerate the vaccine campaign and to pass quickly from 30,000 injections per day to 100,000 or 200,000. take advantage of it as much as possible to reduce the impact of this variant, ”continues Pascal Crépey.
And if the arrival of 50,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine on January 11 is good news, "it only corresponds to one day of injections, which will not be decisive."
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While there are strong disparities in the circulation of the virus from one department to another, regional confinement could limit the progress of this British mutant.
“It's interesting, opines the epidemiologist, but, for the moment, we rather observe a high plateau in these areas and there is no urgent need to reconfigure.
"This strongest weapon, as he describes it, must be used as a last resort and not abused," otherwise the risk is that the population does not adhere and that we find ourselves helpless in the face of this variant.
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