“Are we maintaining or not the easing schedule planned for December 15? This is, in the words of an adviser to the executive, “one of the first questions” which will be asked, this Wednesday, December 9 in the morning, on the table of the Defense Council, in full doubts about the next easing of restrictions. imposed in the face of the Covid-19 epidemic. Prime Minister Jean Castex did not hide his pessimism Tuesday morning during the majority breakfast. “He told us that it would probably be necessary to deconfin differently from what we had planned”, confides a participant, when another retains this question: “Should we reconsider the deadline of December 15 and take different measures? of those we had considered? “The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, himself agreed on LCI in the early evening:” Of course that is part of the assumptions. “
The Director General of Health Jérôme Salomon set the tone on Monday: with some 10,000 Covid-19 contaminations detected every day, France is “still far from the target” set at 5,000 by Emmanuel Macron to initiate the deconfinement of the December 15. Of course, the executive is careful not to make it “a totem”. But, estimated Olivier Véran, “this means that there is still a health impact which is significant and which will continue in the days and weeks to come”.
According to those around him, the question arises in these terms: “Is it a resumption of the epidemic that must be broken, or a thrill because of the drop in temperature?” You have to understand what you are facing and, for that, you need the seven days smoothed out. “Deadline which arrives in the middle of the week …” You have to be very careful and careful. If there is an epidemic resumption, there is a range of measures, ”recalls echoing the Elysee. Status quo or hardening? Advanced curfews, revised tonnage, or even postponed reopening, for places of culture? We will have to wait for the Defense Council on Wednesday and the Prime Minister’s press conference on Thursday at the end of the day to find out more.
“Difficult to deprive people of a family celebration”
Beyond the condition set by the Head of State (which Ségolène Royal has called to abandon), the approach of the holidays places the executive in an even more acute dilemma. “The fear is that an increase in contamination will resume even before the holidays have started,” decrypts an adviser. However, there are already strong fears that the holidays will cause a resumption of the epidemic in January. The other subject is the implementation of the test-trace-isolate strategy, which requires that we have a number of contaminations that can be absorbed by the personnel deployed in this context. “Renowned for his very cautious line -” He follows the Ministry of Health with his eyes closed “laments a ministerial adviser – Jean Castex is particularly worried at the prospect of New Year’s Eve.
Another factor in the equation: “The measures must be heard by people, it is difficult to deprive them of a family celebration,” said a government adviser. With in mind that these festivals come to conclude a horribilis year, others recall “the state of the country, the tensions” or “the necessary political analysis on the social crisis, the psychological consequences”. A very dark backdrop. Especially since the executive is expected at the turn by the opposition. Notably by LR deputies, who denounce his “contradictory injunctions” and demand “massive” screening before and after the holidays. “We don’t want Christmas and New Years to be Thanksgiving ( American celebration followed by an epidemic rebound at the end of November across the Atlantic, Editor’s note ) à la française ”, warns their leader Damien Abad. A reference reminding us how much the executive plays a tight game here.
Original article by : www.leparisien.fr
