The most visible symbol of the Covid-19 epidemic which has been raging in France for two years, the mask will soon almost disappear from faces. The Prime Minister, Jean Castex, indeed announced, Thursday March 3 at “1 p.m.” of TF1, the end of the wearing of the compulsory mask from Monday March 14 “in all the places where he is still [appliqué] », “that is to say, rather inside”. The only exceptions: public transport, where the mask will remain the rule “given the promiscuity” travellers.
Since Monday, this obligation was no longer valid in places subject to the vaccination pass such as museums, theaters and cinemas. But now, we can also do without the mask in shops and businesses, where faces have been hidden since, respectively, July 20 and July 1.is September 2020. These measures will also be applied at school, where the mask will no longer be imposed in classrooms, neither for students nor for first and second degree staff, the Ministry of Education announced in the process. national. Details will be provided during the week of March 7 to 13 during meetings with the unions and representatives of parents of students.
Another important announcement: the vaccination pass, in effect since January 24, will also be suspended on Monday March 14. The sanitary pass will however be maintained in “health establishments, retirement homes, establishments welcoming people with disabilities who are particularly fragile”. In the same way, the vaccination obligation for carers will be maintained, contrary to the choice made in England to lift this rule for employees of retirement homes and to abandon the project of compulsory vaccination for all carers.
“This decision comes too soon”
France is therefore choosing, like most of its European neighbours, to lift almost all of its health restrictions in mid-March, the culmination of a timetable for the reduction of measures started at the beginning of February. Experienced as a liberation by many, these decisions, which came a few hours before the announcement of Emmanuel Macron’s candidacy for the presidential election, do not fail to raise questions.
“We have the impression that we want to whistle the end of the match when it is not over”breathes Yves Buisson, president of the Covid-19 cell of the National Academy of Medicine. “This decision comes too early, it would have been more prudent to wait for the end of the winter period; it is unnecessarily reckless”believes the epidemiologist, expressing two concerns: “the possibility of the emergence of a new variant” and “coronavirus immunity that wanes over time”.
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