France awoke to a new dawn Monday with the scrapping of Covid restrictions such as vaccination passes and masks in public places including schools and businesses. While many are thrilled, others worry the relaxing of rules comes too soon and is influenced by looming elections.
The softer measures mean QR codes (containing vaccination status) are no longer needed to access restaurants and cultural venues, while masks need only be worn on public transport and inside hospitals and other health facilities.
Four weeks out from presidential polls, the government says France’s high vaccination rates and lower hospitalisation numbers have allowed it to lift the tough anti-virus measures the French have been living with for so long. This is despite a rising number of infections.
However as people peel off their masks in indoor spaces, epidemiologists have taken to the airwaves to urge vigilance – especially among the most vulnerable members of society – warning the virus is still in high circulation.
Fresh peak
Pasteur Institute epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet, who sits on the Scientific Council that advises France on its Covid policies, told France Inter radio that with daily infections expected to peak as high as 150,000 by the end of March, other measures such as "hand hygiene and ventilation" must be made a priority.
So far, figures from state health authority Santé publique France show new infections have averaged almost 70,000 a day over the past week.
Fontanet, himself wearing a mask throughout the in-studio interview, said people needed to remain free to decide whether or not to cover their faces, especially those in fragile health who risked developing severe forms of Covid.
"The virus is circulating more today than it did with the variants that preceded Omicron", he said.
Arnaud Fontanet, épidémiologiste, membre du Conseil scientifique : "Je garde le masque, parce que le virus circule beaucoup, qu'on est dans un lieu fermé, où l'on peut imaginer qu'il y a du virus en suspension" #le79inter pic.twitter.com/B4TIZDYgMf
— France Inter (@franceinter) March 14, 2022
Meanwhile early studies suggest the spread of Omicron’s own BA.2 subvariant, which also has experts concerned, could be up to 30 percent more infectious than the original.
Bruno Mégarbane, head of intensive care at the Lariboisière Hospital in Paris, said that while low-risk fully vaccinated members of the population could now resume a "a quasi-normal life", France should also expect "very regular epidemic outbreaks" that could come every three or four months.
Even if the rise in infections doesn’t put pressure on hospitals, the epidemic would continue to progress, he told France Info.
'Political move'
While France's lifting of restrictions is in line with decisions being made in many of its neighbouring countries, critics say the government’s policymaking is a political gamble ahead of next month's presidential polls.
Head of the UFML doctors’ union, Jérôme Marty, told RFI’s sister station France 24 the move made little sense considering infection rates were climbing.
"Moreover, we’re dropping face masks without implementing any parallel measures to ventilate closed spaces and prevent viral concentrations," he said.
"With the presidential campaign in full swing, the motive is clearly political, not sanitary."
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Some teachers, too, have expressed concern as schoolchildren on Monday returned from holidays to their first mask-free classes in over a year.
Primary school teacher François Delcour told BFMTV the lighter health protocols were premature, especially given that back-to-school periods are known to drive up infection rates.
"There is also the issue of seasonal diseases," he said, adding that he intended to keep his mask on in class.
