Soon released and issued from health restrictions?
With a number of new daily contaminations varying between 30,000 and 40,000, and a little less than 6,000 patients in critical care, the epidemic is on a "
downward slope but not yet fast enough
", according to Olivier Véran.
The Minister of Health, however, said he was "in
favor
" of a gradual territorialized deconfinement.
“S
ur our territories, the epidemic does not have the same speed, does not have the same dynamics,
added Julien Denormandie, Minister of Agriculture and Food, Wednesday April 21 on BFMTV.
A territorialized, pragmatic approach seems to make good sense to me. ”
Read also: How Emmanuel Macron tries to reconnect with a non-Covid-19 agenda
While the government should lift the first travel restrictions on May 3, some departments such as Finistère, Pyrénées-Atlantiques, Gers and Landes are seeing an incidence rate lower than the national average, leaving them to hope for a more lifting. rapid sanitary measures in restaurants, theaters, swimming pools and cinemas.
Finistère, Pyrénées-Atlantique, Gers, Landes: low incidence rate
"
The UK has the chance to be part of the regions least affected by the pandemic Covid-19
," said the president of the region, Loig Chesnais-Girard, in a letter sent to the Prime Minister, Jean Castex.
The elected representative wants to make his territory "
a laboratory of deconfinement
" based on a weaker circulation of the virus.
Indeed, with an incidence rate of 88 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, Finistère is the department most spared by Covid-19.
The Pyrénées-Atlantiques follow with an incidence rate of 105, the Gers (110) and the Landes (120).
Incidence rate in France (data updated April 20, 2021) CovidTracker
On the contrary, other departments are suffering from a still galloping circulation of the virus.
This is the case of Seine-Saint-Denis, where 656 contaminations are recorded per 100,000 inhabitants, of Val-d'Oise (640) and Val-de-Marne (574).
The Bouches-du-Rhône (507), Seine-et-Marne (498), Essonne (492), Oise (470) and Sarthe (454) are also closely monitored by the health authorities.
But the incidence rate is not the only criterion looked at.
The tension in hospitals, still underlined by many doctors in the field, is also taken into account.
Finistère and Vienne: hospitalizations and hospital pressure
Despite the three weeks of national confinement, the tension on the health system is weakening only slightly.
As of April 20, 31,086 patients were hospitalized in France, including almost 6,000 in intensive care.
A variable lower than the peak of last March but still higher than last November and monitored very closely by the health authorities who want to avoid congestion in hospitals.
Finistère and Vienne are the two departments with lower hospital pressure, unlike Vosges and Seine-et-Marne, which have an occupancy rate in critical care close to 300%.
Occupancy rate of hospital beds for Covid-19 in France (data updated April 20, 2021) CovidTracker
Finally, the evolution of the epidemic being particularly fluid, it is advisable to monitor its hazards at the rate of the variants so as "
not to deconfin too early
", as feared by the epidemiologist Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health and professor. at the Faculty of Medicine of Geneva.
Evolution of the epidemic and variants
"
In a large number of regions, we are seeing a very notable drop
", continues the Swiss doctor on RTL.
"
The speed of the decline will increase
", provided that the Brazilian and Indian variants do not come to resuscitate the centers of contamination for the moment stifled by the containment measures and the vaccination campaign.
Read also: Indian variant: should flights be suspended and a quarantine imposed with India?
The Brazilian variant is partly responsible for the resumption of the epidemic in Creuse.
The department records a 92% increase in the number of cases in one week, the largest in the country.
Corrèze (+ 23%) and Mayenne (+ 29%) also saw contaminations skyrocket, unlike Gers, down 32%.
Evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic in France (data updated April 20, 2021) CovidTracker
"A priori, all the reasons suggest that this downward trend will not allow us to reach 10,000 cases per day in mid-May, as it was at the end of the second wave
, reacted in
Liberation
the epidemiologist Renaud Piarroux, head of the Parasitology department at Pitié-Salpêtrière (Paris).
By releasing the measurements too early, the risk is that the descent will slow down or even stop and that all these efforts have been made unnecessarily. ”
Can letting go in certain departments where the virus circulates more slowly lead to a sudden resumption of the epidemic in these territories? Create an exodus from regions still under restrictive measures to these territories? Questions on the menu of the Defense Council which was held this Wednesday, April 21.
