Sandrine Prioul, edited by Juline Garnier
modified to
7:33 a.m., March 23, 2022
For ten days, wearing a mask has no longer been compulsory indoors, with the exception of transport and hospitals. But the number of Covid-19 cases has steadily increased in recent weeks, even approaching 100,000 cases per day on average. So health professionals are calling for vigilance and some French people have decided to keep their masks on.
Mask or no mask? It has not been compulsory indoors since March 14, but some French people have chosen to keep it to protect themselves and others. Faced with the resurgence of the Covid-19 epidemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) deemed the withdrawal of this barrier gesture to be too brutal this Tuesday in a press conference. With almost 100,000 daily cases on average in France, pharmacists and doctors encourage the French to keep the mask.
In Brittany, the region most affected by the epidemic currently, the question of the return of the mask is on everyone’s lips. In Cesson-Sevigné in Eric’s pharmacy, the tests are done in the morning, and the list is long. This Tuesday, the professional recorded 15 antigenic tests, of which a large half are positive. “People come with family contact cases, so it’s often whole families” who find themselves positive for Covid-19, he explains.
The mask, “I hardly let it go”
“My little one is in contact, so I did a saliva test for her. I got it in January and I hope I don’t catch it again. So even when they said we could circulate without a mask, I said no and I practically did not let go”, confides a patient.
While the WHO considers that the measures were lifted too soon in France, the pharmacist encourages those who keep the reflex of wearing a mask. “I felt like it was an obligation to wear the mask and it was an obligation to take it off. It’s a bit of a shame. So now you really have to not go from everything to nothing. Keeping the mask on when you have a cold, when you are in front of fragile people, that would already be very good”, warns the professional.
This epidemic tension is quite unprecedented in Brittany. It is therefore advisable to remain vigilant even if the symptoms of this sub-variant remain comparable to nasopharyngitis.