Will the year 2021 begin with a re-containment? In any case, the scenario cannot be ruled out if the epidemic situation “Had to get worse”, said this weekend the Minister of Health Olivier Véran in the Sunday newspaper, while a Defense Council will examine the health situation this Tuesday at the Elysee Palace. If the situation remains stable for the moment in Ile-de-France, it is worsening in certain regions of the country, which see their incidence rates explode: between the first and the third week of December, these indicators increased by 40 % in the Grand Est region and 72% in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur. The highest incidence rate is found in Bourgogne Franche-Comté, with 250 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, against 150 on average in France, according to the latest figures from Public Health France.
Faced with a situation that has become «critique», local elected officials grit their teeth, hoping for decisions “Quick and concrete” on the part of the government, entrusts the socialist mayor of Nancy, Mathieu Klein, to Release. “At the Nancy CHRU, there are now 163 patients with Covid, almost 50% more in two weeks. In the metropolis of greater Nancy, the incidence rate was multiplied by 2.5 throughout the month of December, worries the chosen one. Tensions are very strong in the hospital even though we have not yet passed the holiday season. ” If the mayor would prefer to avoid a new confinement, he does not see any other solution today to stop the epidemic. And the economy? “The consequences will be much greater if we take too long to reconfine, with an even longer confinement.”
A fast, short and adapted confinement according to the territories, this is also what the mayor Les Républicains (LR) of Reims, Arnaud Robinet has been advocating for several days. The hospital services of the commune of Champagne-Ardenne will indeed soon reach saturation point: “In one week, we went from forty to 82 conventional beds occupied for the Covid. Knowing that in the first wave we went up to 101 beds, he explains. I know it’s unpopular, but if we want a resumption of social, cultural and economic activity in the first quarter of 2021, I think we must prevent and not wait for this peak which should arrive around the 15th. – January 20 if nothing is done. “
Wait another week
But express containment is not to everyone’s taste. François Rebsamen, socialist mayor of Dijon (Côte-d’Or), spoke with the Minister of Health Olivier Véran on Sunday. To his eyes, “Do not rush”, and rather wait another week to decide, ten days after the Christmas festivities. “January 4, we will know more”, he says.
The contamination level is certainly high in his city, but the mayor specifies that the intensive care spaces dedicated to patients with Covid are not saturated and that“There is no explosion of cases”. To a national uniform measure, François Rebsamen would thus prefer “More regional, more local decisions. The situation is not the same in Brittany for example ”. And to conclude: “We must not penalize the whole country for two regions.”
In the Allier, Frédéric Aguilera, mayor Les Républicains de Vichy, prefers to focus primarily on screening. “We are a little lacking at the national level in this area, we must amplify all this”, considers the chosen one. In its region, Auvergne Rhône-Alpes, a vast screening operation was launched in December, with “30,000 positive cases tested before Christmas”. The agglomeration of Vichy has decided to continue “An equivalent initiative” until the end of January. As for new restrictions, the mayor of Vichy is clear: confinement or curfew, “Public freedom measures must be the responsibility of the State”.
Compensate for positives in quarantine
With 337 weekly cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the Ardennes department may well rise to the top of the ranking of the territories most affected by the coronavirus, the mayor (without a label) of Charleville-Mézières, Boris Ravignon, does not consider confinement as being the only answer and thinks about alternatives. Starting with a reinforcement of the “test-isolate-trace” triptych, “Which works little” at the national level, according to him.
In its agglomeration, pilot with Le Havre of a “mass testing” operation, 15,000 tests were carried out in December for 120,000 inhabitants. The elected representative also proposes to enter into a contract so that people who test positive are compensated during their quarantine. If the only solution is confinement, Boris Ravignon “Cannot be refused”. But then we should try “to speed up the vaccine schedule ” car “The uncertainty of post-containment is the hardest part for the population. Not the constraints ”.
Economic support
But wouldn’t this third confinement turn out to be fatal for certain sectors, or certain territories? Confining at the start of winter may well be “An economic disaster for the Alpine massifs”, estimates Thierry Repentin, various left mayor of Chambéry (Savoie). The Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region is indeed the third most affected in France, after Bourgogne Franche-Comté and the Grand Est. “The department alone represents half of the turnover of winter tourism in France. And winter tourism is 50% of the GDP of Savoie, and thousands of jobs ”, he recalls.
Whatever the state decides, the councilor hopes it will do so quickly. And “With economic support measures, to compensate”. While waiting for the government to decide, Thierry Repentin remains focused on one task: to organize vaccination. “We should start on January 14 in the city’s nursing homes.”
Julie renson miquel
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