France will allow healthcare workers who contracted COVID-19 but have few or no symptoms to continue caring for patients instead of isolating themselves, an extraordinary measure aimed at alleviating staff shortages in hospitals and other facilities caused by a rebound. unprecedented infections.
The special exemption from France’s quarantine rules that is being applied to hospitals, homes for the elderly, doctors’ offices and other essential health services is a testament to the growing pressure that the omicron variant is putting on the French medical system.
It’s a calculated risk, weighing the possibility that healthcare workers with COVID-19 could infect colleagues and patients versus what the government says is the need to keep essential services running.
Outside of the health sector, for those not covered by the special dispensation, France’s quarantine regulations require at least five days of isolation for those who are fully vaccinated who test positive. For the unvaccinated, isolation should last at least seven days.
Governments and industries have warned that insulation standards are causing staff shortages in various sectors while the omicron variant is causing spikes in many countries. In some places, quarantines have been shortened, such as in France, to get workers back to work.
But in Europe, France seems to be alone in opening up the possibility for health personnel to work while infected.
There is increasing evidence that the omicron variant causes mild symptoms. But the flood of infections continues to send increasing numbers of people to hospitals, putting these institutions under pressure, especially when medical workers are also absent.
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