We're holding our nerve, and so far it seems to be working

 We watched the health minister with bated breath. No, silly, not when he slipped off his shirt to be vaccinated and caused a sensation! When he made the weekly speech. He announced that the virus is circulating and active, but the situation is stable. 

We wondered whether our current 6 till 6 curfew would be maintained, or hardened to a weekend confinement, or even a full-time confinement. Last week the government closed all the big shopping centres - eleven in our department, about 7 of the Bordeaux centres - because that's where people mix most just now. The government really doesn't want to close down the economy any further than it is just now, but some scientists are pushing for stricter measures - even for a full confinement.

Well no. We stay as we are. And it seems to be working. Last week in Nouvelle Aquitaine our R number was calculated at 1.08. This week it's 0.92. Anything under 1 means a disease in retreat. Our number of cases per 100000 is lower and our rate of positive tests is still way under 5%. We're not doing systematic mass testing. We test people who have symptoms or who request a test.

So there we are. We continue as we are for now. The health minister says that it is possible that we will avoid another confinement completely.


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