Like what, throwing your stocks of masks in the trash was not necessarily a good idea. At the Layné hospital in Mont-de-Marsan, patients, professionals and visitors must once again wear a surgical mask, according to information from our colleagues at France Bleu Gascogne.
This measure, which comes into force this Friday, will last fifteen days, until September 2. After this date, the situation will be reassessed according to the evolution of the transmission of the virus. Last Thursday, the hospital of Arcachon made a similar decision by also making the mask mandatory again.
Resurgence of contaminations
These precautionary decisions follow the return of Covid-19 contaminations in the Landes and, more broadly, in the South-West of France. At the Bayonne festivals (Pyrénées-Atlantiques), for example, which brought together 1.3 million people in early August, an outbreak of positive cases followed the festivities.
How to explain this resurgence? Summer is conducive to gatherings and the virus circulates with individuals, taking advantage of cross-hunting and population mixing to move from one organism to another. And also, because it is boosted by the vigor of a new kid: EG.5.1, also nicknamed Eris, a subvariant of Omicron that is imposed in France, the United States or Asia and has been classified as "to follow" by the World Health Organization.
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A new vaccination campaign, aimed at the most vulnerable groups, should also be organized this autumn.