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Coronavirus: a call to maintain barrier gestures in Limousin

Barbecues, outings with friends, restaurants, sightseeing… This year, the summer holidays will not rhyme with carefree care and the opportunities for entertainment or sharing should be accompanied by precautions.

Admittedly, the epidemic is in full recession, the number of positive tests in the Limousin departments is derisory over the last three weeks and New Aquitaine remains relatively spared, suggesting that the threat is far away. But the appearance of foci of contamination, as in Corrèze last week (read below), acts as a reminder and the abandonment, here and there, of barrier gestures challenges.

Haute-Vienne, on the watch and under study on the front of the Covid-19 epidemic

A quirky campaign

Because the Covid-19 is still there, and summer trips may encourage its circulation. Theregional health agency launched a campaign to raise awareness among Neo-Aquitaine residents of the need to maintain barrier gestures. A deliberately offbeat communication campaign.

Example on social distancing, the message was declined according to the department. In Haute-Vienne, one meter is equal to … 9 porcelain cups (or 10 for the clumsy). In Corrèze, it is the equivalent of 8 porcini mushrooms with a precision: “thank you for revealing the picking corners for the measurement!” ” Finally, in Creuse, there are 7 parts of Creuse cake. And elsewhere, it is about oysters, canelés, chestnuts …

Fundamentals to say

“We have the feeling that we have to reiterate the fundamentals,” remarks Pierre-Marie Preux, professor of epidemiology at the University of Limoges. The virus is highly transmissible by air. The manuportée way is more limited than one believed it at one time. This is why in enclosed and air-conditioned spaces, physical distance is not sufficient. You have to put on a mask. Wearing it in the street, once outside, after having abandoned it indoors, lacks consistency, but these are behaviors that can be observed. “

Another idea to keep in mind: “the virus is transmitted in 50% of cases by asymptomatic, undetected, or pre-symptomatic carriers”. So it only takes one seemingly healthy person to infect others. Enough to avoid any desire to kiss for a little while longer…

The question is not whether there will be a second wave, but when …

“The virus is still circulating,” continues the Limougeaud specialist. There are certainly fewer tests every day in France than expected: 200,000 against 700,000. But 1.3% are positive and it is not nothing… There are new clusters every day and when we look at the famous rate of spread, the “zero R”, which indicates the number of people who can be contaminated by a patient, he goes back up. Slightly maybe, but it shouldn’t get out of hand. “

Pierre-Marie Preux does not wish to play the spoilsport of the summer. “If the device put in place to break the transmission chains works, as it seems to be the case now, the summer should not be catastrophic. I don’t have a crystal ball for the start of the school year. However, with the return to work and the arrival of autumn, it looks more difficult and the question is not whether there will be a second wave, but when… ”

“Do not think that this is all over”

And to look beyond our borders, citing two countries in the southern hemisphere, in winter, Australia and South Africa, particularly affected. “In the United States and South America, this is the first wave that is at work and there are countries that have done what was necessary in terms of containment where it starts again, like Spain. “

For the epidemiologist, “we must not think that this is all over and that we are safe”. “With this coronavirus, we don’t really know where we’re going but at the beginning, we all got confused by believing that it was quite harmless. If in 85% of the cases, the forms are benign, 15% are serious and 5% fatal … ”A not unnecessary reminder, in these sunny times but always uncertain.

How to enjoy the summer in New Aquitaine without relaxing too much in front of the Covid-19

Hélène Pommier

In Corrèze, the source of contamination under control

If there was proof of the need not to relax, it is Corrèze which brings it, with the “cluster” of Brive appeared last week. A situation under control with the application of the national protocol: “identify, test, isolate”.
The 30-year-old, who tested positive after a few symptoms (headache), led to three series of tests. In his professional environment, in a tennis club and with the twenty-two people who participated in a private evening on June 27 in Brive. “Four people were found positive, says Sophie Girard, departmental director of the regional health agency (ARS). By identifying the contact cases, we went back to sixty people – and a wider geographical area – who were isolated and will be subject to a second test at seven days. “
Sophie Girard wants to be reassuring despite everything: “no one is hospitalized in Corrèze and there have been no more patients on” sheave “for several weeks. We are clearly in a fold of the epidemic ”. The prefect recalls that the risk factors are “private gatherings, professional circles such as slaughterhouses or the population of seasonal agricultural workers” when the latter are accommodated in collective housing often small. Frédéric Veau insists on the necessary distancing measures. “Having a party at home is not prohibited, but you have to be careful. If we want to enjoy the summer, we don’t relax. During the summer period, the ARS and its partners should offer in Corrèze a dozen free Covid information and screening meetings, offered to the public, “on busy tourist places”. The program is under development.

Lætitia Soulier


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