déconfinement

12:42 May 12, 2020 

(might help with your translation?)
COVID-19 Specific National Protocol for
Employers and Workers
The Return to Work Safely Protocol supports employers in putting in measures to prevent the spread of Covid-19 in their workplace when they open back up.

The Protocol helps employers adapt their workplace procedures and practices to comply fully with Covid-19 related health measures and sets out in clear terms the steps that need to be taken for a business to open back up.

The Protocol helps business owners in:

Developing their Covid-19 Response Plan
Developing policies and procedures to promptly identify and isolate potential Covid-19 cases in the workplace
Implementing Covid-19 prevention and control measures to reduce risk to workers
Issues related to hand hygiene, respiratory hygiene, physical distancing, worker role and customer-facing roles
Developing, consulting, communicating and implementing these changes

08:29 May 12, 2020 

Yes, confinement / deconfinement used in EN is clearly a direct calque of the terms used in FR — and it's important perhaps to remember that there probably isn't an elegant FR term available for 'lockdown'? On the other hand, 'confinement' in FR recalls the well-known term 'consignement à domicile', with which most lay people will be familiar.
I think 'confinement' may also have been chosen in FR as it more accurately represents the reality of the situation imposed over here, which is not 'literally' lockdown' in the original US sense of the word, with which we have sadly become all too familiar in recent years — but does connote a much more restrictive form of confinement. I think most modestly-educated EN speakers would be familair with the term 'solitary confinement', and so it wouldn't be either puzzling or inexplicable to them.
I'm sure EN people here in France use the term because it is (almost) the same as the FR term being used, therefore easy to assimilate.

00:09 May 12, 2020 

Hello
Another interesting point is that when people started to use "lockdown" which sounds quite modern and cool, they obviously were not thinking of the opposite term which we now need.
"Unlockdown" sounds crap IMHO whereas the "confinement/deconfinement" pair work well.

I saw as someone said that "confinement" is used in physics but for the vast majority of us, it's associated more with "being confined to your quarters" which pretty much describes what happened.

I've just checked Australian newspapers and they too use deconfinement in speech marks when talking about France so it's like it's a French word but they know what it means. Interesting

22:12 May 11, 2020 

Exactly. It's a term made up by the English press in Québec or by some French-speaking Quebeckers, without realizing that they're talking about a phase of matter in physics. But because it's now probably widespread in Québec, the English-speaking population will have contextualized the term "deconfinement" to refer to the easing of COVID-19 restrictions.

English speakers outside of Québec won't know what you're on about unless you happen to be speaking to someone who majored in physics. ;-)

I'll concede that languages constantly evolve and terms can vary between regions. However, in that case, a more descriptive translation approach should be used to appeal to a much wider audience.

21:44 May 11, 2020 

None of my native English speaking friends/doctors use deconfinement.

18:13 May 11, 2020 

I did check and it is used in some UK/US articles, albeit sometimes with speech marks.

I like "deconfinement" for practical reasons as it's Latin based and it would be very helpful for European countries if it were adopted in the future in its local forms

Therefore, does anyone happen to know what "deconfinement" is in other European languages?

In Swedish, they seem to use "släppa på karantänen" which is literally "release on quarantine".

17:54 May 11, 2020 

Looking at Libby's answer above, and all the agreements, I'm wondering whether "deconfinement" is indeed what English speakers living and working in France might be using, even though it isn't what we're using here in the UK. The document I'm translating is specifically for workers returning to French offices...

15:15 May 11, 2020 

The field would be medicine IMHO.