Coronavirus: the assessment on the effectiveness of curfew will be known this week

Published by Laurent de Sortiraparis, Manon de Sortiraparis · Photos by · Published on October 31, 2020 at 04:41 p.m.
This Thursday October 22, Prime Minister Jean Castex explained it was too soon to know if curfew does have an incidence on the evolution of coronavirus contaminations. First results are expected for the beginning of the week, Île-de-France regional Health Agency director Aurélien Rousseau says.

Is curfew really effective against the spread of coronavirus? With the resurgence of Covid-19 in what is also called “second wave”, it has been implemented in many big cities in France and is spread to 54 departments.

Curfew will be said effective or not at the beginning of the week, around October 26 or 27, Île-de-France regional Health Agency director Aurélien Rousseau says. "On Monday or Tuesday, contamination results are expected to translate the impact of curfew. We will get elements and know what decisions to make from them" he said on Sunday October 25 on Europe 1.

Curfew was feared by many people and yet, it has been implemented for quite a while overseas – Martinique, Guadeloupe and even French Guiana. To help us get it, French Guiana Regional Health Agency (ARS) director Clara de Bort told BFM TV about the effectiveness of curfew on the spread of coronavirus in her territory.

And the performance leaves no room for doubt. The director says: “it’s been very effective”. The curfew has been implemented in several big cities in French Guiana since March. First spread to the ban of leaving your home from 5 p.m. to 5 a.m., this measure has been made softer as soon as the health situation evolution enabled it. Since late September, the curfew has been on from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. for a “very clear” effect, the ARS says.

In concrete words, the number of new contaminations has decreased in a matter of 5 days, and hospitalizations started to decrease two weeks after the measure started. According data to a study carried out since June 15 by scientists and released in Libération, the virus transmission rate (RO) moved from 1.71 in mid-June to 1.14 right after the implementation of the curfew. A 36% decrease, data shows.

Therefore, doctors on field agree with the report. “I was doubtful as for the relevance of the curfew, but it is clear it has been quite effective” GP Antoine Burin said to BFM TV as he works in Cayenne. Moreover, he says this restriction has been welcomed by the French Guiana population. The ARS director warns on the risk of getting mistaken, taking French Guiana as an example. She says: “We cannot copy (curfew) from one land to another”. Indeed, nothing says what worked in Cayenne will work in Paris.

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