In France, the epidemic situation is “Critical, with the entry into action of the third wave and the predominance of the British variant”Matignon said in a press release on Friday March 26. In an attempt to control the epidemic, the government announced that controls would be tightened and that a class would now be closed from the first case of contamination in the 19 reconfined departments.
On the vaccination front, the only real way out of the health crisis, veterinarians and dentists will be able to participate in the effort and perform injections, according to an opinion from the High Authority for Health (HAS) released Friday.
Controls will intensify
To verify that the French of the nineteen reconfigured departments respect the ban imposed on them not to move without authorization more than ten kilometers from their home, the controls will “Intensify from this day”, announced the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, during a meeting with the Prime Minister, Jean Castex. They are particularly reinforced in “Stations, airports and road tolls”. The head of government brought together the prefects and directors general of the ARS of the 19 departments subject to reinforced measures, for a detailed update.
Nièvre, Rhône and Aube on Thursday joined the list of departments subject to measures of “Reinforced braking” of the epidemic: no travel more than 10 km without derogation, no leaving the region without a compelling reason, new shops closed and half-classes in high school.
A class closed to the first positive case in the reconfigured departments
The Minister of Education, Jean-Michel Blanquer, also announced Friday that a class would now close on the first positive case in the nineteen departments subject to reinforced restriction measures. “This will necessarily mean more class closures”, admitted the minister. All school levels are concerned, from kindergarten to high school.
The number of students infected with Covid-19 increased in a week, announced the ministry: 21,183 students were infected out of a total of 12,400,000, ie a rate of 0.17% (against 0.13% a week ago). On the staff side, we went from 1,809 to 2,515 cases, ie a rate of 0.22%. Across the country, 3,256 classes (compared to 2,018 a week ago) are closed out of 528,400 and 148 school structures (compared to 80) are closed out of 61,500, including 116 schools, 22 colleges and 10 high schools.
For its part, Public Health France reported on Friday a sharp rise in new contaminations among those under 15 years old last week in France. Among 0-14 year olds, the incidence increased by 31% compared to the previous week, to 230 per 100,000 inhabitants, against an increase of 17%, to 313 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, in the whole of population.
252,000 additional professionals to administer vaccines
The opinion issued on Friday March 26 by the HAS makes it possible to extend the list of professionals authorized to administer vaccines against Covid-19. This concerns veterinarians and dentists, pharmacists in analytical laboratories, but also “Pharmacists reporting to the fire and rescue services”, the “Medical electroradiology manipulators”, the “Laboratory technicians”, or even medical students. Veterinarians will be able to vaccinate the public only in vaccination centers (not in their offices), while dentists will be able to do so in both places. This opinion has yet to be formally endorsed by the government.
According to the HAS, this will allow 252,000 additional professionals to be able to administer the doses, knowing that vaccination will be open from March 27 to all people over 70 years of age. Although, in the immediate future, “The limiting element of our campaign” vaccination is not the number of potential vaccinators, but “Vaccine deliveries made to us”, however, recognized Thursday the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, during the weekly situation update.
The HAS recommends authorizing the prescription of vaccines by nurses
In addition, the HAS recommends that this expansion also concerns the “Voluntary retired professionals (pharmacists, nurses, doctors, midwives, veterinarians, dentists, radiology technicians and laboratory technicians)”. And in the longer term, nurses – initially the “ nurses working within the framework of mobile vaccination teams ” -, in addition to being already authorized to inject vaccines against Covid-19, will gradually be able to prescribe them.
This will allow “Meet needs that are not currently covered (isolated elderly people, people with disabilities, detained people, people living in areas with low population density and people who are socially isolated or in a precarious situation, etc.)”.
The overall objective of all these recommendations is “The rapid increase in vaccination coverage”, deemed necessary because of the “Circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 virus at a high level” and some “Rapid dissemination of new variants”, underlines the HAS in its opinion. This is the second extension of authorizations to be vaccinated, pharmacists and midwives having approved on March 5.
Thirteen confirmed cases of the Breton variant
The Breton variant of Covid-19, difficult to detect by a classic PCR test, has been confirmed in thirteen patients in Brittany, the regional health agency (ARS) announced on Friday. It does not report increased contagiousness of this variant whose official name is 20C / H655Y.
“We have no information indicating that the 20C variant is resistant to vaccinations”, said the director general of the ARS of Brittany, Stéphane Mulliez, during a press conference. “Public health France has made progress in its analyzes. At this stage, there is no indication that this 20 C variant is more contagious or more severe ”, he added.
This variant was confirmed by sequencing of its genome in eleven patients of the Lannion hospital center (Côtes-d’Armor), in a patient living in the agglomeration community of Lannion-Trégor, as well as in another inhabitant of the Ile-de- France, but “Passed through the Trégor”, according to Mr. Mulliez. Among them, seven patients died and not eight, as announced in error last week by the ARS.