If Emmanuel Macron’s speech on Monday dwelled at length on the extension of the health pass and, more generally, the importance of vaccination, certain measures that the government wishes to put in place were not announced by the government. President of the Republic on television.
One of the most important concerns a ten-day isolation project for people who test positive for the coronavirus in the territory, unveiled by the Politico and Context sites and confirmed by the executive. Until then, only people returning from certain countries had to self-isolate for seven days. The Health Insurance already asked for a ten-day isolation for positive people, but the latter was not enshrined in the law. This will be done after the adoption of the text that will be presented on Monday.
20 minutes takes stock of this measure.
A person who tests positive for Covid-19 will have to isolate themselves for 10 days in a place whose address must be communicated during the examination of the positive test. The project provides for the maintenance of an exit permit between 10 a.m. and 12 a.m., as well as possible adaptations concerning “the continuation of family life”, “the special condition of minors”, or even the case of people whose safety would be threatened. during their isolation.
The respect of this placement in solitary confinement can be checked by the police and the gendarmerie, thanks to random checks as already exist for travelers returning from a country on the red list. The procedure is placed under the control of the judge of freedoms and detention.
Is isolating a person legal?
The bill, with all the measures, was sent Tuesday by the government to the Council of State, which must validate the matter. The Council of State intervened several times during this health crisis, for example on the tonnage of 30 people maximum per place of worship, judged a “serious and manifestly illegal attack on the fundamental freedom which is the freedom of worship” .
The Council of State must give its opinion on the text on Monday, a text which will then be read in the National Assembly on July 20 or 21, then in the Senate. The validation of the three organisms is necessary.
Invited on BFMTV, the Minister of Health Olivier Véran admitted that he could not ensure that the measure is validated: “It is not certain, if we put it in a bill, that the Council of State will say, “We can do it.” It is not certain that if it was in a bill that Parliament would tell us: “You can do it”. “
Is the measure applicable?
The whole problem with this measure could be its inapplicability with the outbreak. France has gone from 1,800 cases per day on average over the week ended June 26 to more than 5,000 daily cases on average over the last seven days, and it does not seem to stop. According to Olivier Véran, France could know 10,000 positive people per day from the beginning of August.
However, the more people there are to isolate, the more problematic it is. If the measure is validated, the isolation obligation would be in the form of an individual prefectural decree – for each positive person, therefore. Or, from the beginning of August – if Olivier Véran’s forecasts are good – 70,000 arrested to be signed by the prefects per week.
The problem is the same for the controls. While the police are less present and have other missions in the summer – in particular the surveillance of beaches and the main tourist places – how to ensure proper compliance with the measures if there are more than 100,000 people to watch?
Another factor in the equation: Olivier Véran had made his forecasts before the extension of the health pass, which should logically boost the number of tests – now almost mandatory for all activities in closed places in the absence of complete vaccination – and therefore the number of positive cases.
As for hoping for a decline thanks to the measures announced by Emmanuel Macron on Monday, the latter should start to take effect in three weeks at best, leaving by then a potential explosion of positive cases that could compromise this measure aimed precisely at them. control.