the government ends the strategy of “test, trace, isolate”

While Covid contaminations are on the decline, the Ministry of Health has announced that people who test positive will no longer be required to isolate themselves. A different management of Covid cases.

A change of approach. The Ministry of Health announced on Saturday several relief measures in connection with the Covid, including the end of compulsory isolation for people who tested positive, even if it remains recommended. These announcements, which come into force on February 1, mark the end of the “test, trace, isolate” strategy, while contamination is on the decline.

Among the planned developments, the ministry indicates that people who test positive for Covid-19 will no longer be required to isolate themselves and that asymptomatic contact cases will no longer need to be tested.

The Health Insurance “Contact Covid” file will also end on January 31. This service, known as “contact tracing”, made it possible to identify positive cases and contact cases at Covid.

“We were just waiting for this”

Announcements well received by these Parisians. “It’s a good thing because I think we were just waiting for that”, rejoices a resident at the microphone of BFMTV. “A return to normal yes, but at the same time we still take precautions,” said another, cautious.

“Most of the population is now a little more autonomous compared to (the recommendations linked to Covid, editor’s note) and wears the mask in transport”, assures a young man.

A decrease in contamination

The government justifies the announced reduction in health rules by the falling figures for the number of Covid contaminations.

“Whether in mainland France or overseas, we have fallen below the alert threshold of 54 cases per 100,000 inhabitants”, underlines our health journalist Caroline Dieudonné.

“It is perhaps less the consequence of a drop in contamination than that of its effects which are clearly attenuated”, estimates for his part Jean-Pierre Thierry, health consultant for BFMTV who recalls that we test “much less” currently.

“A good level of collective immunity”

The end of the “test, trace, isolate” strategy is welcomed by some doctors who believe that it is no longer adapted to the current situation.

“The goal is no longer to interrupt the circulation (of the virus). (…) We must let it circulate now in a population which has a good level of collective immunity”, estimates with BFMTV the epidemiologist Yves Buisson, also president of the Covid-19 cell at the national academy of medicine.

For the doctor, the main thing is now “to insist on the vaccination of people at risk”.

The number of contaminations has dropped in one month, from more than 20,000 to less than 5,000 per day on average, according to the Covid Tracker site.