The health crisis is gradually coming back to the fore. For several weeks, France has been facing “an epidemic resumption which is linked to the arrival of new variants of the Omicron family, which are called BA4 BA5”, indicates infectious disease specialist Anne-Claude Crémieux, on Franceinfo.

Despite epidemiological indicators turning red and an average number of daily positive cases which has increased by 50% in the space of a week, the return of health measures such as the wearing of compulsory masks is not in order. of the day.

The infectiologist still advises people over the age of 60 to continue to wear these facial protections in very confined environments such as in “very closed rooms with several hundred people”.

To stem this new wave of the epidemic, the government intends to relaunch a vaccination campaign which is now idling.

The two new variants BA.4 and BA.5 are more transmissible than BA.2, which caused the wave in March, but they also escape “a little better from the vaccine”, specifies Anne-Claude Crémieux. Consequence: they cause “an erosion of the effectiveness of the protection of the vaccine against severe forms, after four to six months”, adds the infectiologist.

To protect yourself as much as possible from all serious forms, it is therefore essential to be up to date with your anti-covid vaccines. The only problem: the vaccination campaign for the second booster doses is not “going fast enough” according to the health authorities. Only a quarter of eligible people (people aged 60 and over) have received their second booster vaccine against Covid, a “clearly insufficient” rate, underlines the government.

Soon, letters should therefore be sent to the people concerned to encourage them to take this new dose without delay.