The numbers of clusters and contaminations are increasing, schools are shutting downs, neighboring countries are fighting against a second wave: the coronavirus epidemic is coming back hard and its level gets medical experts worried. According to the president of the Scientific Committee, Jean-François Delfraissy, the threat is such that the government “will have to make a certain number of difficult decisions […] within eight to ten days max”.
Are French people going to be put on lockdown again for several weeks? According to professor Delfraissy, the closing of public places, the ban of gatherings, or the general lockdown of the population are not the solutions to implement immediately. The president of the Scientific Committee prefers reinforcing the “testing/tracking/isolating” method, claiming this strategy has not been implemented enough yet.
Jean-François Delfrassy is afraid of “a quick, exponential increase [of the virus circulation], in a second movement”, a situation that may challenge the care capacities of the patients in France.
It is especially the situation in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur that worries scientists. “France is set at a level that is now worrying, that is not Spain’s, but not far, with a fifteen-day delay, and that is much more severe that Italy’s” the professor says.
He adds that for the government, these decisions are difficult to make, but they must be and be implemented quickly: “any decision that could be made now would have a potential advantage” on the health situation “within a matter of 15 days” he explains.
Jean-François Delfraissy proposes several solutions to curb the spread of the virus. He speaks about reinforcing the protection method of elderly people or presenting a risk factor (diabetes, obesity, respiratory disease…), in order to “create a sort of bubble around these people”.
In some more dangerous regions, they are considering implementing “binding measures” for the isolation period of sick and contact cases, even though the Scientific Committee still refuses to confine the people like so.
