The circulation of the coronavirus is “In clear increase” in France. The number of new contaminations has returned to levels comparable to those at the end of confinement, as noted by the Ministry of Health in its daily update, Friday, July 24. “We have erased a good part of the progress that we had made in the first weeks of deconfinement”, he lamented, while calling on the French to « discipline collective ».
Friday, more than 1,000 new contaminations were recorded compared to the day before, for the second consecutive day. On that date, 5,720 people were hospitalized for a Covid-19 infection, including 410 patients with a severe form hospitalized in intensive care. The virus’s reproduction rate (“R zero”) is 1.3: which means that a patient infects an average of 1.3 people.
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Firefighters and medical assistants authorized to perform the tests
Firefighters, rescuers, nursing assistants, health students are now authorized to take samples to test for Covid-19, in order to make up for the lack of personnel in the laboratories, according to a decree published on Saturday Official newspaper.
The government had already extended the possibility of taking samples, initially reserved only for medical biologists, to 40,000 laboratory technicians. The following are affected by this new enlargement: State-certified nurses, students in odontology, maieutics and pharmacy, nursing aides, firefighters, marine firefighters and first aiders from approved civil security associations ” adequate first aid training. These are PCR virological tests for which the waiting times are now too long in many areas, particularly in Ile-de-France, where the lack of personnel and the high demand are leading to near saturation.
“It takes a lot more people to take the samples. If we want to control the epidemic, we must test the population much more widely “, estimated Saturday, on Europe 1, the epidemiologist Catherine Hill. “We focused on the outbreaks, but it’s a serious mistake, we must focus on the carriers of the virus”, she warned.
The decree also provides that the tests, which cost 54 euros, will be fully covered by Medicare, even without a prescription. Finally, the text confirms the free distribution of masks to the most vulnerable French people, measure announced by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, Wednesday.
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Reinforced border controls
The strong demand for tests could be accentuated as France has just strengthened its screening system, by making tests compulsory at airports for travelers from sixteen countries classified as “red”. The latter must either present a negative screening test of less than 72 hours carried out in the country of departure, or undergo a test on their arrival in France. In the event of a positive result, they will have to put in fourteen. The system, which concerns all airports and ports on French territory, will be fully operational “No later than 1is August “, announced Jean Castex, traveling on Friday at Roissy-Charles-de-Gaulle airport.
The Prime Minister also recommended to the French not to go to Catalonia, where the upsurge of the epidemic worries. Paris is discussing with Madrid, in order to reduce as much as possible the flows between Spain and France.
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Seven departments above the vigilance threshold
Seven metropolitan departments recorded last week an incidence rate above the vigilance threshold, set at ten positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants. These are Mayenne, Vosges, Finistère, Val-d’Oise, Haut-Rhin, Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis.
In Mayenne, placed in “High vulnerability”, the regional health agency (ARS) says it is leading “An intensive screening policy” with, since July 12, “More than 11,800 tests in the department”, which has a little more than 300,000 inhabitants, according to the director general of ARS Pays de la Loire, Jean-Jacques Coiplet, during a press videoconference on Friday.
In New Aquitaine, the Covid-19 “Is gaining ground, especially among 15-44 year olds”, worries the ARS. The incidence rate in this age group “Went from 1.1 at the beginning of June to 4.1 the week of July 13-18 (compared to 2.6 for those aged 75 and over)”, specifies the agency. In total, the region has 13 clusters, 8 of which are linked to family celebrations or “Private events”, like parties or weddings. “We have a behavioral problem which results in the circulation of the virus, with the risk of then infecting very fragile people”, explained to Agence France-Presse (AFP) Laurent Filleul, head of the French public health unit for New Aquitaine.
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