LE PECQ, France – France allows healthcare workers infected with the coronavirus but showing few or no symptoms to continue treating patients rather than self-isolating, an extraordinary interim measure aimed at alleviating staff shortages in hospitals and other medical establishments caused by an unprecedented explosion of infections.
The special exemption from France’s quarantine rules being rolled out in hospitals, nursing homes, doctors’ offices and other essential health services is a testament to the increasing pressure placed on the French medical system by the variant. fast-spreading omicron.
This is a calculated risk, with the possibility of COVID-positive health workers and caregivers infecting colleagues and patients weighed against what the government says is the need to keep essential services running.
Outside the healthcare sector, for people not covered by the special exemption, France’s quarantine rules require at least five days of self-isolation for fully vaccinated people who test positive.
With the particularly contagious omicron variant causing outbreaks of infections in many countries, governments and industries have warned that self-isolation rules are leading to staff shortages in various sectors.
In some places, quarantines have been shortened, notably in France, to bring workers back to their posts. But in Europe, France seems to be the only one to now also open the possibility for health workers to work while they are infected.
There are more and more signs that the new variant is causing less severe disease. But the large number of new infections are still sending increasing numbers of people to hospitals, putting them under pressure, especially when medical staff are also absent.
Hospital leaders said the new self-isolation flexibility for health workers in France would help them fill staffing gaps if and when they open.
“If the system becomes very tense and 50% of our staff is positive, the less symptomatic will come to work because the patients will still need to be treated,” said Prof. Marc Leone, head of the anesthesiology department at the North hospital in the southern city of Marseille.
“But we are not in that situation yet,” he said.
The new rules were detailed in a health ministry warning message that was sent to hospitals, healthcare facilities and health authorities on Sunday and was seen by the Associated Press. The new rules are rolled out this week.
The ministry’s alert said the deluge of viral infections in France poses “a major risk of disrupting the supply of care”. He called the measure “exceptional and temporary” and said it would be lifted when the system was not so saturated with cases of the virus.
The exemption opens the possibility for doctors, hospital staff and carers of people with disabilities and other vulnerable people to continue working despite a positive test, provided they are fully vaccinated and do not cough and sneeze not.
Instructions from the Department of Health indicate that, where possible, infected workers should not come into contact with unvaccinated patients or with people at higher risk of serious illness with COVID-19.
The ministry said they should also limit their interactions with colleagues as much as possible and cannot participate in shared activities where masks are removed, such as breaks for eating and drinking.
With the largest number of virus cases confirmed daily in Europe, France is in an increasingly difficult position.
The average number of daily cases in France has more than doubled in a week, and the country reported a record 271,686 cases of the virus per day on Tuesday as infections caused by omicron multiply across the country, weighing on hospital staff and threatening to disrupt health care, transportation, schools and other services.
More than 20,000 people are hospitalized with the virus in France, a number that has been rising steadily for weeks but not as sharply as infection rates.
COVID-19 patients occupy more than 72% of intensive care beds in France, and a once famous healthcare system is once again showing signs of strain. Most patients infected with the virus in intensive care units are not vaccinated, although 77% of the population have received at least two doses.
More than 123,000 people with the virus have died in France, among the highest in the world.
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