Living with Covid in Nice 3

Some quick notes on the reality of ‘opening up’.

We were talking with a local business owner yesterday and she was explaining the way in which public transport here is patrolled by plain-clothes inspectors who police, not just fare evasion, but mask wearing as well. (There is an excellent bus and train service in Nice that we use a lot.)

According to her, they are diligent about handing out the mandated 135€ fine to anyone they spot without a mask.

Certainly explains the extremely high level of compliance we see whenever we are on a tram or bus.

Retail outlets police compliance themselves, though the bigger stores—supermarkets and department stores—have security guards at the door. And you will be told to mask-up if you try and enter sans cover.

I haven’t seen any arguments about this, but I presume they happen.

Every shop also has hand sanitiser dispensers and again, most people use it when entering.

At the main train station in Nice, Gare Thiers, this mobile testing station was set up. It was the first one like this I had seen, though as I’ve noted before, you can get a (not free) test at almost any pharmacy.

Mobile Covid testing at Gare Thiers, Nice

On Wednesday we took a two-hour train ride to Tende, an old town at the foot of the Alps, and the museum there required a pass sanitaire for entry and for patrons to wear a mask once inside, so it isn’t just cafes and restaurants that require evidence of a vaccination or a recent negative test.

Having been in Nice for a few weeks now, and having become a first-class stickybeak, another thing I have noticed is that, despite the fact that mask-wearing is not mandated for outdoor areas, and that most people walk around without one (they often wear them on their arm, ready to go), a lot of older people nonetheless mask-up.

The most likely explanation is that older people feel more vulnerable—their outdoor compliance is really noticeable once you register it—and it is a reminder that you do tend to live with this constant background hum of vulnerability, a hum that must increase in volume and pitch the more vulnerable you are.

Latest figures from France in general show there are still about 6,ooo new Covid cases a day, and that the ICU occupancy rate in Provence Alpes Côte D’Azur, where we are living, is 62%.

According to our pass sanitaire app, 84.1% of French people over twelve are fully vaccinated (though I note, The New York Times says the number is only 66%.)

The most encouraging data point is the reproduction rate (R), which shows the number of people who will catch the disease from each infected individual, and which you want to keep at less than one, is currently at 0.7.

Freedom is really the wrong word to associate with opening up.

Apart from the ongoing risk of being infected, which, as I say, hums in the background, you live in constant state of surveillance and technological dependency that I am convinced should not go unremarked, let alone become normalised.

All of this is worth thinking about as Australia hurtles towards a relaxation of restrictions.

(On similar point, in the next post, I’m going to talk about the government departments and private companies we have had to interact with just to be here.)

PS: We weren’t quite game to brave the wobbly bridge and visit this chapel in the mountains when we went to Tende.