As the entire mainland France is subject to another lockdown since April 3, the number of new Covid-19 contaminations – noticed in departments complying with “curbing measures” since March 20 – seems to show a slight inversion of the curve. Therefore, has the third wave peaked already in France? This is what some experts think, including France Télévisions journalist and doctor Damien Mascret.
This April 8, invited on France 3’s show 19/20, he said the latest data were encouraging. “If one looks at the weekly incidence curve in France, one sees the epidemic seems to have peaked. Of course, it is too soon, the country is still above 400 for 100,000 inhabitants, and yet, this could mean the situation is slightly improving”, he explained.
These data can be checked especially in the 16 departments (Hauts-de-France, Île-de-France, and Alpes-Maritimes, and then Seine-Maritime and Eure) placed in lockdown for three weeks. As the expert states, the number of positive cases in these territories remain high, but the overall situation seems to improve more than elsewhere. “Since March 31, the decrease seems more obvious than anywhere else in France, there is a 4% decrease, as it is only 1% elsewhere in France. It is encouraging since these measures have been extended all over France”, Mascret added.
In details, the positivity rate moved from 10.9% as of March 28 to 9.7% as of April 4 in Île-de-France. Over the same period of time, in Hauts-de-France, it moved from 9.6% to 8.3%. As for Alpes-Maritimes, the positivity rate (6.6%) has now dropped under the domestic average.
So, will the extension of these lockdown measures to the entire mainland France and the implementation of additional measures such as closing school confirm, or even improve, this decrease and enable to say the third wave has peaked already? More on that matter in the coming days.
