Faced with its fierce infectiousness, are companies overwhelmed by the 6th wave in January?

According to Olivier Guerin, a member of the French Scientific Council, “food distribution, security, energy, transport, communication and health”.

The president of the institution, Jean-François Delfraissi, for his part raised the “potential dislocation of many essential services”.

Still in a minority in France, the Omicron version has not caused mass forced isolation due to positive cases or contact cases. But some warning signs are showing and the headlines are a sixth wave in January.

cancellation of flights

On Rails, SNCF notes minor disruptions in regional trains but no effect on main line, The RATP feels “no worries at the moment”, and the post office confirms not to face any problems.

On the wind side, where the Scandinavian company SAS had to cancel dozens of flights on Tuesday and Wednesday due to the absence of sick employees, and Lufthansa is facing the same problem on its long-haul flights, without confirming that the version is included, Air France does not currently treat pilots or flight crew as ill to the extent that it is forced to cancel.

in craft and small construction companies, an area already affected lack of staff“Contact cases and positive cases mean we lose more manpower and it will be complicated to provide so much activity”, the president of their Confederation (Capub) on France Info, Jean-Christophe Repon, worried on Friday. Did.

In the areas of health, education, transport, the Minister of Health, Olivier Veran, tried to be reassured that “there are anticipation cells at all levels (…) to allow the country to turn”. and economics.

“We should avoid any incident of paralysis in the country,” he said. The finance ministry on Friday said to remain vigilant and monitor the situation closely, many sectors may again call for help.

spectacle

Telecom is strongly recommended by the governmentAccording to a survey conducted in mid-December by the firm Harris for the Ministry of Labor, 44% of working people say they can’t use it.

This is naturally the case with the performing arts, where a surge in cases at the Moulin Rouge, Crazy Horse and the Mogador Theater in Paris in the wake of Broadway has forced cancellations, rekindling the memory of the first wave. spring 2020.

In the UK, the postal operator Royal Mail has noticed absenteeism at this time of year. more than twice as much as in 2018While sick leaves among crew on trains have increased and the network has been affected, the Financial Times reported in mid-December.

Affected long before the Omicron wave, the United Kingdom reported 120,000 cases of Covid-19 on Thursday, a new record, while France decimated more than 90,000.

“It is very likely that the activities of many companies will be affected for the simple reason that Omicron is much more contagious than previous variants,” said Roel Beetsma, professor of economics at the University of Amsterdam.

This has already happened in Belgium, where the Audi plant in Brussels, one of the country’s largest automobile manufacturing sites, closed for a week in late November due to the multiplication of COVID cases.

Faced with the risk of a tidal wave, the French government is considering a review of isolation methods, according to Olivier Veran that “needs to prepare for the hypothesis (…) that an insignificant part of the working population No. Contact or positive case found even without symptoms, at the same time”. The Health Defense Council will be held in France on Monday.