Brigitte Autran, president of the Health Risk Monitoring and Anticipation Committee (Covars) announced the new recommendations on Monday during a press conference, as reported by BFMTV. His speech is part of a 9th wave of Covid-19 against which several experts have warned in recent weeks as well as the Minister of Health François Braun.

The fears crystallize around a very particular contextual element: the so-called “triple epidemic”. As its name suggests, it corresponds to the convergence of three elements… On the one hand, the famous 9th wave of Covid-19, on the other hand, the crossing of an epidemic threshold for seasonal flu, and finally the advent of a pronounced and early outbreak of bronchiolitis. These elements mutually reinforce the seriousness of the consequences associated with them: all three are factors that weigh on the hospital and the public health system.

Given the number of cases, Covars has observed a very low level of wearing a mask in closed and crowded places such as transport. The chair of the committee strongly called for respect for this basic barrier gesture, recommending free masks for all, and therefore the generalization of its accessibility. Indeed, severely immunocompromised people already benefit from access to free masks.

The Covars also called for vaccination against Covid-19, but also against the flu. To this end, the committee recommended, among other things, the reopening of certain specialized centres. The government, after consulting the scientific data exposed by the Covars, has taken the decision not to make the mask compulsory for the moment. But given the progress of this umpteenth epidemic wave and the repeated injunctions to wear a mask which seem to be hitting the mark, a return to the obligation could never be completely ruled out.

Find below the 13 places where the mask has been compulsory in the past, and therefore those which meet the characteristics to become so again.