In the pharmacy, two customers are talking about the nose. Covid or simple cold? In a few minutes, the number of bars on the test will deliver its verdict. Screening at home has so far shown only one, but Guillaume, 36 and Margot, 29, two feverish colleagues, have a doubt. In the fashion agency where they work, some seats are empty, several had to leave the office after being contaminated. “We now do around thirty tests a day compared to five in August, their number is clearly increasing but there are also a lot of colds and angina”, describes pharmacist Muriel Zylbersztejn, rue Montorgueil, in the 2nd arrondissement of Paris. It must be said that the drop in temperatures creates confusion.
This Thursday, September 22, in the middle of the morning, out of fifteen swabs, two came out positive. Will those of Guillaume and Margot increase the statistics of the day? In the pharmacy, no one wears a mask. Neither do they. “It’s true… We should have”, regrets the first, even if he did not forget to cover his nose during a recent appointment with a pregnant woman. Since the end of the obligation on May 16 in transport, the accessory has deserted handbags. “We’ve lost the habit,” confirms Margot.
The pharmacist notices it too. “Under 50, no one wears one, while older people, who are more responsible, put it on when they are sick. If the mask continues to sell, this is no longer the case for the bottles of hydroalcoholic gel at the counter. “It will come back,” predicts the pharmacist. Self-tests are selling like hot cakes, around forty a day. The two colleagues come out. Verdict? Negative. To them Fashion Week next week.
“An increase in cases, especially among the youngest”
In the magazine “Complément d’Enquête”, broadcast this Thursday evening, the Director General of Health, Jérôme Salomon, confirmed the start of an eighth wave. “There is objectively an increase in cases, especially among young people. With more than 30,000 cases per day on average, an increase of around 40% in one week, the epidemic is gaining ground. According to the Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation and Statistics (DREES), in France, more than 1.1 million PCR and antigen tests were carried out between September 12 and 18 against 854,000, the previous week, i.e. + 33% increase.
And it is in Paris and Guadeloupe that we make the most antigenics. Nationally, the positivity rate is now at 20%. ” It’s not nothing ! exclaims Lionel Barrand, president of the national union of medical biologists. We talk about a wave when there is a queue in front of the lab, this is not yet the case but for the first time since the summer, the number of cases is increasing and everything suggests that the curve is not going to s ‘reverse. »
This rebound of BA.5, sub-variant of Omicron, favored by the start of the school year and the mixing of the population is particularly important among children under 16 years old. “Indeed, it is mainly young people who come to be tested, but their parents are also starting to be affected”, explains Philippe Besset, president of the federation of pharmaceutical unions in France. In his pharmacy in Limoux, in the Aude, it is mainly children who pass the test of the cotton swab.
Barely 30% of over-60s received their second booster
“We also tested nursery staff, all were positive. “Faced with this rise, will the French go to be vaccinated? Despite the incentives during the summer, barely 30% of those over 60 received their second booster dose. Perhaps the arrival this fall of new vaccines adapted to Omicron’s little brothers, recommended by the High Authority for Health, will arouse more enthusiasm.
Do not bet everything on the injection, warns epidemiologist Dominique Costagliola. “We have effective tools to avoid infection, such as the mask. “But here it is largely fallen from the faces. “Only one person in a hundred wears it in my lab,” laments François Blanchecotte, president of the union of biologists. The epidemiologist warns: “It must be put back in all closed places where the level of ventilation is not controlled. »
Another effective bulwark is to regularly open the windows of the apartments. “For months, there has also been talk of a massive investment in CO2 sensors in schools. What happened to these promises? said Dominique Costagliola indignantly. The scientist recalls that each wave leads to 10,000 deaths, not counting the long Covids. “Living with the virus does not mean ignoring it, she warns, it is taking preventive measures without coercion. Thanks to them, you avoid infections, hospitalizations, deaths. »