The smell of sweat has not yet replaced that of fresh paint, but it’s coming soon: from Friday evening, discos and other nightclubs can reopen. Provided they meet a strict health protocol: 75% gauge, clients must all present a valid health pass (complete vaccination schedule or negative test of less than 48 hours) and the owners must prepare a reminder booklet in case contamination, or even cluster.
Result, in fact “70% of establishments will remain closed this summer”, warns Christian Jouny, general delegate of the Union of discotheques and places of leisure. The health protocol, but also the short time to prepare, hire and train explain this figure. Result, after sixteen long months of total closure, it is not time to party. Especially since the – for the moment modest – epidemic resurgence arrives: the incidence rate is no longer decreasing in France. Worse, it goes back in recent days, even passes the alert threshold as in Paris. The fault in particular with the variant Delta, more contagious. So, obviously, on the professional side, we are not very serene: “We are not even open yet that we are already preparing to have additional restrictions …”, remark, annoyed, Christian Jouny.
The Catalan precedent
The concern has also increased with the decision of Catalonia, in Spain, to close its discotheques just a few weeks after having reopened them. Here too, faced with a resurgence of Covid-19 contaminations. However, Michaël Rochoy, doctor specializing in epidemiology and member of the collective On the side of science, does not seem more frightened than that: “We are not going to have an outbreak of cases because of the discotheques!” Especially since a priori we are talking about a rather young audience, which does not make serious cases. I’m not worried as long as the rules are followed. “
Rather, he is worried about the decorrelation between health data, including the incidence rate, and the timing of reopening. And above all, the inconsistency with the rooms of bars and restaurants, which can accommodate the public without gauge, without mask and without compulsory health pass. “I think there is less risk of getting contaminated in nightclubs, given the protocol and the public, than in dining rooms, which welcome a larger public and potentially older, therefore more at risk”, he explains.
A distortion of competition
The doctor believes that part of the increase in cases in recent days is linked to the opening of dining rooms. This inconsistency in the government’s plan has obviously not gone unnoticed by nightclub managers: “There is a distortion of competition between nightclubs and bars and restaurants. We want an identical policy for the entire profession, ”announces Christian Jouny, responsible for negotiations with the government for his union. Clearly, he wants the health pass rule to be also mandatory to go to the room of a bar or a restaurant.
The Syndicate of discotheques has also decided, once again, to file an appeal to this effect before the Council of State. And Christian Jouy is optimistic: “On June 30, the Council of State could not note any distortion of competition since we had not yet reopened. Next week it could be different. “And then this measure could also encourage young people to go for vaccination”, thinks the general secretary of the union. Michaël Rochoy is also on the side of discotheques, even if he judges that it will be necessary to impose new measures if the incidence goes up too much, but “before asking himself if we are too lax with the discotheques and if they are necessary. close, let’s impose the sanitary pass on bars and restaurants. “