A ninth wave that breaks at full speed. Covid-19 contaminations are on the rise in France and no department is spared new cases, according to the latest figures published by Public Health France. With an average incidence rate exceeding 570 per 100,000 inhabitants, the country is facing a resurgence of the epidemic two weeks before the Christmas holidays. If the figures are worrying, they only reflect part of the reality, because they only concern the French who have taken a test, in full gève of the medical biology laboratories.

Faced with this new wave, twelve patient associations are campaigning for the return of the wearing of compulsory masks. In a column published by Le Parisien, they affirm that “the situation is no longer tenable” and issue the alert: “Our hospital system, which could be overwhelmed, on the eve of the end of the year celebrations”. The government has multiplied calls for responsibility in recent weeks, asking the most vulnerable French people to be vaccinated and to wear a mask in the busiest places. Not enough, according to these associations.

For the first time in several months, the executive is preparing to hold a press conference around the epidemic. Olivier Véran announced on Wednesday December 7 that the Minister of Health François Braun will speak this Friday December 9. Will the mask be compulsory again in many places of daily life? Will he once again ask the French to make an effort?

Invited on BFMTV on Sunday December 4, the minister declared: “If the contaminations continue to increase, my arm will not tremble if it is necessary to decide on the obligation to wear a mask”. “Currently this is not the case, I am monitoring the situation day and day and the decisions will follow the evolution of the situation”, he added, specifying to scrutinize “the saturation of hospitals or the evolution of the ‘flu epidemic”. In these 11 departments, more and more beds are occupied by patients with Covid-19.