The Covid-19 pandemic will once again weigh on the New Year’s festivities this year as the number of new contaminations breaks records. What can and not be done for this New Year’s Eve party? How to prepare for the start of the school year and the return to work with the Omicron variant? franceinfo answers your questions, Friday December 31, 2021.
Can we wake up with unvaccinated loved ones when we have co-morbidities?
“You have to be reasonable and careful” facing “tsunami” of the Omicron variant, replies Dr. Jimmy Mohamed. “If you spend the holidays with someone unvaccinated even though they have no symptoms they are potentially contagious so if you do not have your full vaccination schedule I think it is unreasonable to see a unvaccinated family. ” If you nevertheless decide to take this risk, “you need at least an antigen test, a self-test if necessary and we try to ventilate the room”.
If all the guests have a negative self-test or antigen test, is that enough?
“Better a test than no test at all”, explains Jimmy Mohammed. “But beware, continues the doctor, what the Americans have found is that the antigen tests are much less positive because of the Omicron variant. Which means we have more and more negative tests when people are sick. ” In consultation, Doctor Mohammed sees patients with “typical symptoms of Covid and they are negative.” Without a PCR test, there is therefore no guarantee of zero risk.
Is an infection the same as an injection?
“Yes”, Jimmy Mohamed answers. “To have a valid health pass, you need three events. Vaccination or illness is an event, explains the doctor. So if you took two doses and you caught the coronavirus this week, last week or last month, well you have this third event which acts as a reminder and therefore your health pass will be extended automatically “. “You need three events, whatever the date”.
Do students need to self-test before returning to class?
“Nothing obligatory for the moment”, answers Noémie Bonnin, education specialist at franceinfo. “Self-test boxes were distributed in November and in particular to 6th year students who could not yet be vaccinated at that time. They are invited to self-test as a family once or twice a day. week but there is nothing required. “ “It might be a good idea to do it before Monday, she adds, but you won’t be asked when you get to college Monday morning. “
I am in contact, can I still go and get vaccinated?
“If you are in contact, I advise you not to get vaccinated since at the moment, when you are in contact, you are almost sure to have the disease”, warns doctor Jimmy Mohamed. Even if you do a test right before the injection, “it can be falsely negative”. “We postpone our vaccination, we wait to get out of isolation, to have tested negative at one week to get vaccinated.” Otherwise we risk an addition of “flu-like symptoms”, some linked to the disease and the other to antibodies developed by vaccination, a “Rifle Covid”, alert Jimmy Mohamed.
Can you be infected with two variants of the coronavirus at the same time?
“There can be co-infections, two viruses at the same time, or even several”, explains Doctor Mohamed. For example a rhinovirus and the Covid or the flu and the Covid. On the other hand, there is almost no risk of having both Delta and Omicron. ”“ When you have been infected with the Delta variant, you are protected at one time t more than a few weeks, maybe a few months. but you risk catching Omicron behind “, he specifies.
Should a company with six employees test positive for Covid-19 close?
“Companies must apply the national protocol which has just been updated, Thursday, December 30”, answers Isabelle Raymond, head of the economic service of franceinfo. He recommends three days of teleworking per week on “all teleworking positions, four days when possible”. “What the government does not want is a general disorganization of society, of the economy with businesses that are closing.”