New restrictions in France due to the Delta variant of the coronavirus | President Emmanuel Macron would announce health measures next Monday

From Paris

It was to be a free summer, a few months with precautions but finally without confinements and restrictions after 15 months of confinements, curfews, empty towns, closed stores, contaminations and deaths. The Delta variant of the Covid-19 virus has changed the executive’s agenda and will disrupt the lives of millions of people. The French summer will be under the influence of new measures to stop or appease the consequences of what epidemiologists already deem “inevitable”, namely a fourth wave of the virus. A month and a half after having detailed in the media (April 29) the three-step calendar that led in June to the deconfinement of France, the end of the curfew, the wearing of masks in the streets and others obligations, French President Emmanuel Macron must review this calendar and renew certain measures.

Alarming figures

The alarming numbers are once again the nightmare of every day. 2,350 new cases of Covid-19 were recorded per day, which equates to a 31% increase from the previous week. The virus’s reproduction rate (equivalent to the number of infections a person will pass on to others) is 1.5. For scientists and politicians, there is no longer any doubt that the virus has spread again through the population and its sudden and accelerated rate responds to the circulation of the Delta variant of the virus, far more contagious than all. the other sub-variants which had been discovered so far (60% more contagious). The French Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, He specified on France Inter that Delta today represents close to 50% of the positive cases found and that this variant “is gradually replacing all the other strains of the coronavirus that existed. The Delta variant will soon be the majority in our country, probably this weekend”.

All regions of France are affected by the flow (7,384 people hospitalized). However, its expansion is particularly dense in Ile-de-France (where Paris is located). It has gone from 24 cases per 100,000 inhabitants to 40 cases per day while in Paris, where the dangerous threshold has been set at 50 cases, this border has already been crossed. The incidence of the virus is increasing across the age group, but is particularly high among young people between the ages of 20 and 29. In this age group, contamination has increased by 80% (65 positive cases per 100,000 people during the last week). From Thursday July 8 to Friday July 9, there were 4,490 contaminations against 4,081 the day before. The previous week the cases amounted to 2,600 daily contaminations. So far, 54 percent of the population has been vaccinated with at least one dose and 39 percent with two.

Bells

The government is doing everything to promote vaccination and overcome the reluctance of sectors of the country hostile to the vaccine. Massive poster campaigns, radio and television spots, elements of language “designed” to persuade the population, nothing was lacking on the communication menu. “A small step for you, a big step for humanity”, says one of the slogans which “copies” the sentence spoken by Neil armstrong when, on July 21, 1969, he was the first human to set foot on the moon.

Compulsory vaccination for health personnel, modification of the health passport, new confinements and restrictive measures applicable in the regions most exposed to the coronavirus, the government is preparing a series of announcements aimed at containing the spread of the virus. Without issue, the measures will be known Monday, July 12, at the end of a health defense council, at the end of which Emmanuel Macron will address the country. The definition made by the Head of State of the virus is quite valid: “he is the master of time”. And that time seemed threat free only a month and a half ago.

On May 20, Emmanuel Macron shared a coffee with him Prime Minister Jean Castex on the terrace of a bar to celebrate “rediscovered freedom”. Once again, everything was possible: to move freely and, in his personal case, to prepare his electoral campaign with a free hand in view of the presidential elections of 2022 and, at the same time, to withdraw the central projects of his mandate which remained on hold. due to the virus (the reform of the pension system, for example).

But the obligations return and the “phantom menace” is now called Delta. The intervention was planned, but not to be occupied by the virus but, rather, to detail the presidential objectives during the 9 months until the elections (April 2022). From now on, your speech will contain this roadmap, as well as the measures that will be decided during the Health Defense Council exceptional. The fourth wave gallops into the summer and is very likely to change the plans and ambitions of the political agenda again. Celebrations for restored “freedom” are starting to look out of date. At the urinal in the bathroom of a bar on San Luis Island, a small television screen broadcasts a torrent of advertisements. One of them “celebrates” the release and promotes the vaccine. “Life is finally reactivated! To continue to benefit from it, let’s get vaccinated, ”says the announcement. Vaccinated or not, if the contaminations progress, life will return to the territory of nuanced freedoms.