‘Real risk’ of second wave of Covid-19
The risk of a second wave of Covid-19 from the end of October is real, the head of France’s scientific advisory council has warned.
A second wave
“It could start off again in France, or elsewhere,” Professor Jean-François Delfraissy told an inquiry into the handling of Covid-19. “That’s why we have to be very attentive to barrier measures, because for now there’s no really effective treatment and no vaccine.” He said, however, that a new general confinement would be “impossible and undesirable for economic and social reasons”.
New Covid-19 clusters
A total of 216 new Covid-19 clusters were reported in mainland France in the latest figures available (June 16) since the end of lockdown. Health authorities say cases are mainly under control but issued a warning to remain vigilant. Thirty cases were in Sarcelles (Val-d’Oise). Professor Didier Raoult, the infectious diseases expert who championed anti-viral drugs hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine to treat coronavirus, has also warned of a possible new wave. He said we should watch New Zealand as it has similar conditions to France and is entering its winter season.
France deconfinement: What opens June 22, in July and beyond
Treatment trials
France has been considering whether to resume trials of the use of hydroxychloroquine against Covid-19 as part of the European Discovery tests after doubt was cast on the reliability of a study in British journal The Lancet, which said it caused increased deaths. The article influenced France to ban it as a treatment. The WHO removed the drug from its Solidarity trial, saying it did not reduce mortality, based on its own results and the UK’s Recovery trial.
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