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Another seven counties have been declared intensive, that is, red zones, in France in terms of the spread of the coronavirus. This has increased the number of these counties to 28, writes the MTI, according to a statement released by the Paris government on Sunday. Health Minister Olivier Véran also indicated that the cabinet is considering cutting the current 14-day quarantine period in half.
In more than a quarter of the 100 French counties, the prefects can take restrictive measures. The areas reclassified on Sunday include the main metropolitan agglomerations, Lille in the north, Rouen and Le Havre in the west, Strasbourg in Alsace and the two counties of Dijon and Corsica in the central part of the country. In the red zones there are more than fifty infected per 100,000 inhabitants, which exceeds the alert threshold.
Teachers receive transparent masks
The government has also announced that teachers in kindergarten and lower grades, as well as those who teach the hearing impaired, will receive a transparent mask through which
students can read orally and follow the facial expressions of the adults who treat them.
– We will produce more than 100,000 masks at the end of the month. These clear and washable masks will be distributed in large quantities during the fall, ”said Sophie Cluzel, Secretary of State for the Disabled, in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche. It is given to all teachers who care for preschool, elementary and hearing impaired students.
Since the beginning of school in September, masks are compulsory for teachers and students over 11 years of age in all educational institutions, creating difficulties not only for the hearing impaired but also for younger students to read and write.
Originally designed for deaf and hard of hearing people, the top and bottom of the masks are made of fabric to cover the nose and chin, and the middle is made of clear plastic in the front of the mouth, which Gives the mask wearer a facial expression, unlike surgical or washable disposable textile masks. In addition to teachers, speech therapists and those who work with the elderly or autistic also use people with hearing problems.
The price of a mask of this type is 10 euros, which is double.
the price of washable masks.
Quarantine is optional, only recommended
There is no official quarantine in France, it is not mandatory for those infected, but isolation is only recommended for 14 days. The government is considering reducing this period to at least half, as several studies have shown that
Carriers of the virus transmit the virus in the first five days after the onset of symptoms, after which they are no longer infected, so isolation for seven days may be sufficient to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
Although not all experts agree, the government is expected to decide to shorten the quarantine after a Defense Council meeting on Tuesday, according to government sources.
The number of infected people set a record
Saturday night, according to official data, the previous 24 hours
8,550 new cases of coronavirus were discovered after 8,975 on Friday. The latter was a record number of registered cases of the coronavirus epidemic per day, but already in the second half of the week the number of new cases per day exceeded seven thousand.
The virus is spreading exponentially and the strong growth is cause for concern, according to the Health Ministry, which expects the number of critically ill patients in hospitals to begin to increase significantly in the second half of next week. Last week, 1,661 newly infected people were hospitalized, 285 of whom also need a ventilator. Despite the growing trend, the data is still nowhere near the known numbers at the peak of the spring, when there were more than 30,000 in hospitals at any one time, of which more than 7,000 were in intensive care units. The death toll from the coronavirus infection has risen to around twenty a day since the lifting of epidemiological restrictions, with 12 dead on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 30,698.
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