what are the scenarios under study to avoid full re-containment?

Originally expected on Wednesday January 27, 2021, Emmanuel Macron will not finally speak. The Élysée is trying to calm the spirits concerning a third confinement against the coronavirus and its variants. Here are his working hypotheses.

Having a cloudy mind, an expression that corresponds well to our state of the moment. It must be said that the government is playing with our nerves as to the follow-up to the events facing Covid-19 and its variants. After announcing a televised address by Emmanuel Macron this Wednesday, January 27, 2021, it is finally no longer question. On the other hand, the president will take the floor at the beginning of next week, around February 1, therefore. To wait more would allow the executive to see the effects of the national curfew at 6 p.m. over a period of two weeks. But there would be above all a delay in the figures, according to Europe 1. The psychological state of the French, which fluctuates between despair and resignation, would also be one of the sources of the delay in new decisions: the Elysee would not want to poison its relations with the population and would seek "softer" means to pass the pill. So what are the alternative scenarios being studied?

Telecommuting, still and always the best option

The office remains a place of contamination. According to analyzes by the Institut Pasteur published in December 2020, 28.1% of the contaminations identified outside the home come from the workplace. And more specifically, the virus is spread through open spaces and during lunch. For months, doctors have been leaning towards compulsory teleworking. What qualifies a collective of representatives of employers' unions and employees of the Ile-de-France region which calls in the World, January 23, 2021, "the development of balanced teleworking respectful of social dialogue in companies".

Rethinking school holidays

On the set of BFM TV, Sunday January 24, 2021, the President of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy estimated that the school holidays should be adapted. "We enter an area where there is a possible exit, which is the period of school holidays. We can imagine adapting the school holidays, this is not calling into question the opening of schools, it is admitting that we can have school holidays of one more week, perhaps by grouping them together ", he explained. A confinement of schools, in a way. Which would allow "that we can find ourselves, in parallel with a form of confinement decided by the politician, at a level decided by the politician, with vacations which would reduce attendance at school", for the health specialist.

Confine people over 65 only

A thorny debate that dominates the news: should we confine only the elderly and / or the most vulnerable? For infectious disease specialist Odile Launay, at RMC's microphone, "confinement for the most fragile people, while the vaccination is carried out". An option that could involve a request for voluntary self-isolation. "We can ask ourselves whether this confinement, to the extent that vaccines arrive, could not be offered […] to the people most at risk, who are ultimately those who will be vaccinated very quickly, who are those who are most at risk of being hospitalized, of having severe forms", she exposes.

Generalized confinement but only on weekends

This scenario of weekends at home would avoid travel between regions and potential family or friendly gatherings. And also, too heavy economic consequences during the week. A very important point for the government, which must therefore still decide.