The vaccinal pass disappears from Monday that also marks the almost total end of the mandatory mask. And yet, the epidemic shows signs of recovery.
Le Monde with AFP
Two years after the first confinement, the French government is preparing to raise, Monday, March 14, most of the anti-Covid-19 restrictions, following the example of other European countries.
“These advances have been waiting for them for a very long time, the French waited for them, they mark a decisive step,” said Wednesday, the spokesman of the government, Gabriel Attal.
Monday’s step is two main measures:
- the vaccinal pass, which requires being vaccinated against COVID-19 to access many places, will be lifted even if its “sanitary” version, which also works with a negative test to the virus, will be maintained in the establishments Healthy health: hospitals, ehpad …
- The mask, it will no longer be mandatory, with the exception of transport and, again, health institutions. This lightening concerns schools, businesses and businesses, which will keep the choice or not to impose on their employees. The cinemas, restaurants or museums were not already subject to this obligation since the end of February.
a context yet less favorable than announced
With this vast lightening, France follows the example of several European countries, starting with Denmark, which launched the movement in early January. But the chosen date appears paradoxical at the very moment when “the number of cases (…) seems to diminish”, according to the terms of Mr. Attal, a euphemism while the epidemic has recorded a small rebound for several days.
It is partly linked to a lower vigilance of the French, who has been announced the end of the restrictions for several weeks, and to the development of “BA.2”, a particularly transmissible version of the Omicron variant , already very contagious in his previous incarnation. The government had said that it would not end the vaccination pass if the epidemic ceased its progress.
Another condition, mentioned several weeks by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, is also not filled for the time. The end of the pass was supposed to intervene at less than 1,500 people hospitalized in resuscitation with COVID-19. More than 1,800 patients were still in this case at the end of the week.
Admittedly, Mr. Véran featured the government’s enthusiasm on Friday, promising to remain “extremely vigilant”. It is not enough to reassure certain doctors and researchers who regret a relief that they judge illegible, too early and suspect of demagogy at a month of the presidential election at which the head of state, Emmanuel Macron, is a candidate to A new mandate.
These researchers are less worried about the end of the vaccinal pass, the effect of the epidemic remains very uncertain, than the lifting of the obligation of the mask. They are mostly concerned about the fate of immunocompromised people, who immunization does little effect.
The political world in unison
But if a part of the medical world is concerned, it is not the case of the political world, a sign that the return to normal is largely consensus. No opponent of Mr. Macron, left and on the right, did not see too fast the relief of the measures, in a context, mainly dominated by the war in Ukraine and, to a lesser extent, economic considerations such as pensions or the purchasing power.
Beyond the political consensus, the government can also rely on relatively optimistic forecasts of the Institut Pasteur, whose models serve as a basis for the scientific council which, in return, advises the State in the health crisis. .
Even in the worst case, the Institute believes that the wave will be far from the peak observed at the beginning of the year at more than 300,000 cases a day. As for the effects on hospitalizations, the most crucial stake, they would be limited by the fact that Omicron – in its version BA.2 as in its previous incarnation – appears significantly less dangerous than its predecessor delta, which it now has almost totally supplanted.