At the end of February 2021, all of France is preparing for new health restrictions.
Any?
No !
In a few rare places in the country, slight relaxation of health protocols gives residents certain freedoms.
By refusing to reconfigure the whole country, the government has indeed opened the way to a territorial approach to the health crisis, and is now carefully observing the incidence rate (number of positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants) in each department.
It is the worrying rise of this indicator that has led the authorities to tighten up the measures in the Alpes Maritimes and probably soon in the North.
Wearing a relaxed mask in the municipalities of certain departments
But then, what is happening in the departments where this incidence rate remains very low, well below the national average?
It is on the basis of this indicator that the prefect of Morbihan for example decided to repeal the wearing of the compulsory mask outdoors throughout the department, decided on February 5.
In recent days, wearing a mask outside has therefore been no longer compulsory in certain municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants where the circulation of the virus remains very low, except in open-air markets.
The prefecture relies directly on health indicators to justify this relaxation: “
The incidence rate of covid19 has decreased on February 15, 2021 (88.01) compared to that observed on February 4, 2021 (117 , 26)
”specifies the new decree.
It is on the basis of a similar reasoning that the summary judge of the Toulouse administrative court ruled on the illegality of a decree of the prefect of Aveyron, which aimed to make it compulsory to wear a mask outdoors. throughout the department.
“
As of January 21, 2021, the incidence rate stood at 145.5 per 100,000, or 0.14%, significantly lower than the national average of 190 and regional average of 183.6 per 100,000. [...] These local circumstances do not make it possible to establish the need for a general obligation to wear a mask on public roads and in public places throughout the department, while the wearing of a mask is already imposed in closed public places and collective private
”specifies the judge.
As a result, the prefect has been forced for a few days to lighten the rules decided on last month, and to no longer impose the wearing of a mask outdoors only in the communities of municipalities where the virus continues to circulate most actively.
Already in December, the same court ruled illegal a similar decree, this time taken by the prefect of Ariège, also based on the low population density of the territory and on an incidence rate well below the average. national.
There again, the prefecture had to review its copy.
Same decision also at the administrative court of Châlons-en-Champagne, which had annulled a similar decree in Haute-Marne.
Measures that Dr Martin Blachier, doctor and partner at Public Health Expertise, deems inevitable: “
The government can now only take targeted territorial measures.
We will therefore have to go into detail, and tighten the protocols here to weaken them there: it is in the logic of things,
”he explains to
Figaro
.
Flexibilities in nursing homes and schools
The relaxation of health measures is also eagerly awaited in nursing homes, in particular concerning the limitation of visits for relatives and families of residents.
"
I hope, like the 700,000 residents in nursing homes, that we will be able to further remove the health constraints
" had declared Olivier Véran at a press conference on February 19, adding that "
more than 75% of elderly people in nursing homes
" had to this day received at least a first dose of a vaccine.
In fact, some school directors did not wait for the national instructions and have already announced a relaxation of the constraints, as in the residence of Orchids, in Croix (59).
The director of the establishment Magali Pezin thus declared to France Info that "
from March, families will be able to come to the apartments without an appointment and without meeting space
", adding that "
the second step will be the complete exit of residents who will be able to go to the streets, to shops and to their families
”.
Still according to her, activities involving external service providers could also restart shortly.
Finally, in schools, the Minister of National Education has also slightly relaxed the rules, especially in terms of closing classes when a variant of the virus was detected. While until then an automatic closure of classes was planned as soon as a student infected with a variant of the virus was detected, the new protocol put in place for the start of winter vacation no longer provides for systematic closure of classes when this is the British variant. The rule then becomes the same as initially (ie a closing of the class after three positive cases). In addition, the staff of the establishments are no longer automatically considered as contact cases when a pupil is tested positive: only now an in-depth study of the contacts of each pupil tested positive makes it possible to draw conclusions on possible contact cases within the staff. schools.