Sun, rest and… barrier gestures. For the third consecutive year, the summer holidays have been marked by the Covid-19 epidemic, the indicators of which have been worsening in France for several days. Mass displacements, as well as the mixing of generations in many public places, thus raise fears of a large-scale epidemic outbreak this summer.
While the government strongly recommends, without imposing it, to wear the mask again in closed places, franceinfo summarizes the good practices set out by the health authorities for the coming months.
Get tested immediately if you have symptoms or live with a positive person
This has not changed since the start of the pandemic: the test is recommended when there is a suspicion of Covid-19. If you notice symptoms such as fever, cough, loss of taste, smell, but also possible nausea or vomiting (symptoms associated with the new sub-variants of Omicron), you should get tested immediately . A self-test can give a first indication, but the High Authority for Health (HAS) recommends an antigen test by a healthcare professional or a PCR test in a medical biology laboratory in order to remove any doubt.
If you live under the same roof as a person positive for Covid-19, there too, you must be tested immediately, reminds the Ministry of Health on its site. If you test positive, continue to self-isolate for seven days from the date symptoms started or the date of the test. It is possible to reduce the duration of this isolation in the event of a negative test after five days. All this without forgetting to warn, in turn, his possible contact cases.
Respect a deadline before the test in other cases
Be careful not to get tested too soon. Given the incubation time of the disease, getting tested the day after a suspicious encounter, for example, could mislead you. As soon as you learn that you are in contact, it is first recommended to isolate yourself. If symptoms appear or have already appeared, then you should get tested.
If there are no symptoms, you should remain isolated and be tested seven days after the last contact with the infected person.
Remember the main barrier gestures
After almost two and a half years of the pandemic, reinforced hygiene measures have become a habit for many. But a booster shot can’t hurt. First of all, it is advisable to wash your hands systematically after taking public transport, arriving home or at work, after blowing your nose, coughing or sneezing or before preparing meals, to serve or eat them. The recipe is quite simple: water, soap, and thorough washing for at least 30 seconds. If you do not have access to a water point, the same process can be carried out with a hydroalcoholic solution.
It is also with clean hands that you have to handle your mask, a second weapon against the spread of the coronavirus. Wearing a mask is again strongly recommended in closed places, including transport, and large gatherings, because it prevents the projection of viral particles in the air. As long as it covers perfectly the nose, the mouth and the chin, and that it is renewed every 4 hours at the most.
Airing rooms is easier to achieve in the summer, and that’s a good thing. Micro-droplets containing the virus can remain suspended in the air in closed environments for several hours. It is therefore recommended to ventilate each living room every hour for ten minutes, in order to drive out these unwanted particles. Finally, it is strongly recommended to sneeze or cough into the bend of your elbow, rather than into your hands, and to keep a safe distance from the most fragile.
Think about the vaccination booster for the over 60s
This is the main measure taken by the authorities to avoid congestion in intensive care units this summer. The campaign for the second booster shot (a third or fourth dose depending on the case) has been open since April 7 to people aged 60 and over, with or without comorbidities, as well as to people immunocompromised. But in the opinion of Public Health France, this campaign “remains significantly insufficient”, even if pharmacies have again been taken by storm in recent days. So don’t delay too long if you want to make this reminder in time for the summer reunion.