On line 6 of the Paris metro, direction Nation, a user says: a few moments before we boarded the train, a person wearing a mask attacked a young man, guilty of a sneeze that would put everyone in danger. A scene that shows nervousness in the face of the seventh wave of the Covid-19 epidemic which is accelerating in France. At the start of summer, cases of contamination are exploding again, with more than 147,000 cases counted on Tuesday June 28 by Public Health France, an increase of 54% in just seven days.
Faced with this level of contamination, recommendations to put the mask back on, especially in transport, are increasing on the government side. On franceinfo, the CEO of the SNCF Jean-Pierre Farandou has engaged, calling on travelers to wear the mask again in stations and trains, by “civic sense“.
The fact remains that, for the time being, in this Parisian line 6 metro train, 90% of travelers do not wear the mask. Lauriane, she is an exception: she recently handed it over: “I had stopped wearing it and then, for about ten days, I put it back in transport with the rise of cases to protect myself, I prefer to wear it to protect myself, to protect others. Today, the mask is not compulsory, everyone does what they want“, she recalls.
This call for personal responsibility, Qassem, too, joins it. But with a dose of nervousness in addition: the situation in transport annoys him. “I work in a hospital environment, and we have been eating it head on since the start. It’s completely unconscious on the part of people not to wear it. We feel a little helpless. We always wear the mask, even if this one is more to protect others than me. Afterwards, they just won’t have to come complaining behind it,” he concludes, bitterly.
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Hearing this mandatory pro-mask argument made by people who see the Covid up close, Valentin reacts: it is out of the question to consider wearing a mask again. “Currently in Paris, it is complicated. And then, it’s not practical to talk, to hear each other. So if possible, I hope the Covid-19 will stop as soon as possible to move on“, he defends.
If by “move on“, you hear going abroad, to breathe another air, be careful: if we compare with our European neighbors, France remains quite permissive in terms of masks in transport. Italy, for example, extended at the end from last week the wearing of the surgical mask in the metro, the bus, and the train, until the end of the summer.