The coronavirus has not yet left Belgium, but some citizens are now cured. Are they now protected? Can they resume a normal life by lightening the rules of hygiene which they imposed themselves until now?
Are we going to be able to massively screen the population? How to envisage deconfinement?
Emmanuel André, virologist and inter-federal spokesperson for coronavirus, answered questions from Christophe Deborsu this afternoon in “It’s not every Sunday”.
“It seems obvious that we cannot test everyone”
Setting up tests is important, in order to know who can resist the virus because he has already had it. Are all Belgians going to be tested? Is this what will allow all Belgians to be unconfined and not others?
“To start deconfinement, it will take a certain number of elements and information. It seems obvious that we cannot test everyone”, explains the virologist. “But we can test representative groups and test the most fragile and exposed groups. All testing strategies will allow us to progress in this direction. No risk will ever exist, but the risk contained, under control, is towards what we want to get closer to. “
Does being immune allow me to be protected?
When we are tested and immunized because we have already had the virus, can we resume a normal life? And if, on the other hand, we are still exposed to the virus, what will happen?
“The individual question of” if I have had the disease, even asymptomatically, does it allow me to be protected? “Is a legitimate question. But that does not meet the need for knowledge. that we need at the country level to make the decisions, “ underlines Emmanuel André. “It is obvious that someone who has a positive serology, who has antibodies, will be protected on an individual basis”.
“Even immunized, everyone can be a vector of the virus”
But the virologist adds an important clarification: “For the community, this is another question that arises. These people there can always, if they do not respect hand hygiene measures for example, be vectors of the virus towards the people they meet. , you will need to maintain a number of complementary measures, even if you are immune.
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