What if the Covid-19 was finally behind us? All the indicators now seem to be green, with a decrease in the circulation of the virus and hospitalizations. Be careful, the epidemic is “controlled” but certainly “not over”, warn the scientists.
A proven decline
Last week, “the slowdown in the SARS-CoV-2 epidemic was confirmed throughout the country, with a decrease in incidence rates (-39%) and positivity rates (-5 points)” , sums up the French public health agency in its weekly update published at the end of the week.
If these indicators remain at a high level, the ebb is no longer in doubt: the daily average of new contaminations over seven days, which smoothes the variations, stood at 43,865 on Thursday, against 80,980 the previous Thursday. A drop which is also confirmed in the hospital since 21,880 Covid-19 patients were hospitalized on Thursday, against 24,130 a week earlier.
Some measures in force
This health situation in “very marked improvement, will give rise to adaptations in the coming weeks” of the measures in force, underlined the Head of State Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday during the Council of Ministers.
Most of the restrictions were lifted in mid-March on the territory, but some measures are still in force, such as wearing a mask in public transport, the health pass required in health establishments, or even compulsory isolation after a positive test for Covid-19.
“New Variant”
“At the end of May-beginning of June, there will probably be political decisions,” France Info said on Friday. Jean-Francois Delfraissythe president of the Scientific Council, which advises the government.
Because it is a fact: “We are coming out of this fifth wave, which has been a little longer than expected” and we can be “reasonably optimistic for France and Europe for the months to come, with probably a spring which is likely to go well, ”he judged. By the end of May, he predicts a drop in contamination of around 5 to 10,000 cases per day.
But, he recalled, the situation was the same a year ago, before the Delta variant arrived in France in June, which reshuffled the cards. The epidemic is under control but we all know that it is not over,” warned Delfraissy. We can indeed expect “the appearance of a new variant: we estimate it rather at the beginning of the school year but perhaps it will arrive before”. And the whole question will then be to know what will be its contagiousness, its severity and its resistance to vaccines.
