Transparency is not required at the Palais Bourbon when it comes to health. At least seven MPs have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days, according to parliamentary sources. If there is “no outbreak”, employees are worried about the lack of information on these cases, while the Assembly opposes medical confidentiality and the measures taken.
At LREM for example, an elected official has just tested positive. A contact case isolated himself in his office while awaiting the result of his test Thursday afternoon. Another “walker”, positive this weekend, isolated himself with “flu symptoms”, but “not serious”.
The LFI group has one case, its other members including Jean-Luc Mélenchon are negative. Non-registered Annie Chapelier (ex-LREM) and Hubert Julien-Laferrière are in solitary confinement after a positive test.
At LR, Dino Cinieri, diagnosed last week, is still positive. Hospitalized on October 13 because of the Covid, Michel Castellani (Liberties and Territories) returned home “three days ago”, but is still “weakened”, indicates his group.
A “cluster” last spring
The Palais Bourbon had been a “cluster” last spring. Last spring, there were 22 deputies tested positive including three serious cases, as well as 6 staff members and two collaborators infected.
Since mid-October, the half-gauge has been imposed for the deputies, in committee as in the hemicycle, and the wearing of the mask is obligatory.
The institution does not communicate the number of positive cases, under medical confidentiality. According to a parliamentary source, “the situation is under control” but “we are at the mercy of the unwary”.
Among the staff, however, a trade unionist deplores a “total denial”. There are “strong gaps in information in the event of a positive case”, considers the CFTC of employees.
There is “no will to screen”
However, the Assembly asked the affected staff to report themselves via a dedicated email address. “This information is essential to allow internal tracing of contact cases and identify, if necessary, epidemic foci within a service”, indicates a report from the health, safety and working conditions committee ( CHSCT) from the beginning of October.
But unlike the screening campaign conducted in the Senate on a voluntary basis, which revealed last Friday eight positive senators, there is “no will to screen” in the Assembly, regrets a parliamentary source.
“The doctor’s office should only be called upon as a last resort (when the conditions of access to the external laboratory are too difficult for example)”, indicates the PV of the CHSCT consulted by AFP. A laboratory “close to home” is to be preferred.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
