A message of thanks hanging from a window in Nice, April 6, 2020. – AFP
France entered its fourth week of Tuesday containment to fight the coronavirus, but it is far from the end of its pain, with nearly 9,000 dead and despite some glimmers of hope.
After so many days of unprecedented confinement throughout the national territory, there is no question of relaxing the efforts made so far to fight the epidemic, the government warned on Monday evening. With the beautiful days coming back and the Easter holidays which began in zone C (Île-de-France and Occitanie), the Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner asked the prefects to “examine on a case by case basis” and in connection with the mayors, the “need to tighten up the measures”, “where signs of slackening would emerge”.
In Reunion, nine people, including six members of the same family, fled Monday from the compulsory fortnight center where they were placed when they arrived on the island.
First signs of a positive effect of containment
“It is not over, far from it: we are not at the end of the epidemic ascent,” said Minister of Health Olivier Véran. “Let’s be strict on confinement (…) the only way to curb this epidemic,” insisted the president of the Scientific Council, Jean-François Delfraissy.
This is all the more so since the first signs of a positive effect of this confinement appear, especially in the Grand Est. In this region, hit hard, the elected Strasbourg and former minister Catherine Trautmann (PS) called Monday evening to make Alsace the pilot territory for “large-scale tests” of Covid-19 screening to consider the deconfinement. The European Parliament, which has its seat in Strasbourg, will for its part welcome in the coming days a screening center and a consultation center on the coronavirus.
The hell of the Ehpad and the ordeal of loved ones
The pressure on hospitals and nursing homes remains very strong, however. The Minister of Health announced the launch of a vast screening operation in nursing homes, some of which have been decimated by the disease. According to the latest report, at least 2,417 deaths have been recorded since the start of the epidemic in nursing homes and other medico-social establishments.
For loved ones, the lack of information is often a nightmare. “Healthcare team with four mobile numbers, it doesn’t answer.” Medical secretary, it doesn’t answer. Psychological cell, it does not respond, “alarms Clarisse Marquez to the AFP. His mother, 85, entered an Ehpad in Paris a few days before the confinement on March 17.
In total, since March 1, 8,911 people have died in France. 6,494 of them died in hospitals, 605 of them in 24 hours, another worst daily report since the start of the epidemic. The improvement noted on this plan on Sunday therefore did not last.
Pending a possible vaccine, a clinical trial consisting of transfusing blood plasma from people recovered from Covid-19 to “patients in the acute phase of the disease” is due to start on Tuesday. Convalescent plasma, the liquid part of the blood that concentrates antibodies after illness, has already been shown to be effective in small-scale studies against other infectious diseases like Ebola or SARS.
A recession “likely far beyond -2.2%”
The epidemic, which has killed more than 70,000 people worldwide, continues to darken the economic outlook. Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire outlined the scenario for an economy hit hard on Monday, with a recession “likely far beyond -2.2%”. “This goes to show the magnitude of the economic shock we are facing,” he said. This did not prevent the Paris stock exchange from ending on a sharp rise Monday (+ 4.61%), the markets wanting to believe in a health lull.
The confinement period, already extended once, is scheduled to end on April 15. But a new extension seems likely. At least it will have led to a sharp drop in crimes and misdemeanors during the month of March. In this very particular context, the decreases are on average around 45% for the majority of indicators, notes the Ministry of the Interior. This confinement also has other consequences: associations for the defense of sex workers, hit by “extreme financial insecurity” for three weeks, asked Emmanuel Macron on Monday for the creation of an emergency fund.
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