While the flu and Covid-19 and other winter viruses are circulating strongly during this end-of-year holiday season, infectious disease doctor Benjamin Davido calls for caution and recommends that everyone follow the barrier gestures learned during the pandemic.
![End of year celebrations: don’t forget barrier gestures\](https://www.pourquoidocteur.fr/media/article/COPY_istock-1283875712-1703587620.jpg "End of year celebrations: don’t forget barrier gestures\")
- The flu and Covid-19 viruses are circulating strongly in France during these end-of-year holidays.
- Infectious disease doctor Benjamin Davido advises adopting the barrier gestures learned during the pandemic.
- Guest on France Inter on Sunday, the expert also recalled the importance of vaccination in the fight against winter epidemics.
Between the arrival of JN1a new variant of SARS-CoV-2which led to an increase in cases of 30% in one week at the end of November and beginning of December, and 5 metropolitan regions in the flu epidemic phase, viruses will be part of these 2023 end-of-year celebrations.
Guest on the show France Inter Sundayinfectious disease doctor Benjamin Davidohead of the infectious and tropical diseases department, and Covid referent at the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches called on the French to respect barrier gestures during this period of festivities marked by numerous intergenerational meetings.
Winter virus: it is necessary to apply barrier gestures as soon as the appearance of symptoms
To avoid contamination during family reunions and New Year festivities, the infectious disease specialist advises: “When you cough, when you have a runny nose, you shouldn’t hesitate to tell yourself that you might be sick. He then adds “let’s mask ourselves, test ourselves and if necessary, consult”.
If the Covid-19 and flu viruses or even mycoplasma, a bacteria which causes pneumonia mainly in children and young adults, are not curbed, “the risk, at the end of the day, arithmetically, is to see patients arrive with more or less severe forms, requiring oxygen, requiring medical advice, consulting in the emergency room”recalls the expert. He adds : “And one of the ways to avoid getting sick, I think first of all, is to be vaccinated. We are lucky to have a vaccine that is up to date. Masking up during New Year’s Eve appears impossible mission.”
The other way to avoid transmission with loved ones is to respect barrier gestures. “What we need to do is try to use these good everyday gestures that we learned well during the pandemic.”
Christmas and New Year : barrier gestures to follow to avoid contamination
A Public Health France surveycarried out in September 2023, revealed that six out of 10 French people were ready to follow barrier gestures in the event of a Covid-19 epidemic, but only 25% and 22% of respondents say they are ready to adopt them in the event of flu or winter sickness (gastroenteritis, bronchiolitis). And yet, these simple measures help curb all viruses.
Santé Publique France has therefore reminded you of the right actions to follow during family gatherings during the end of year holidays to protect more vulnerable loved ones:
- to carry a mask as soon as symptoms appear (cough, cold, fever, sore throat) in busy and poorly ventilated places such as public transport and shopping centers. The same must be done in the presence of fragile people, even in the absence of symptoms;
- se wash your hands frequently with soap and water or with a hydro-alcoholic solution;
- ventilate regularly his accommodation: the doctor Davido advises to open “the window ten minutes every hour to avoid, once again, keeping droplets in suspension” in the room where everyone is gathered;
- to sneeze and cough into his elbow: doing it in the hands increases the risk of contamination by contact;
- to use a single-use tissue.
