Falling to a two-year low, the number of COVID-19 tests saw a “slight uptick” last week, according to figures released Thursday by the Health Ministry.
The decline is marking time: with 775,000 PCR and antigen tests validated between August 22 and 28, screening activity is “slightly up” by 5% compared to the week of August 15, indicates the department of statistics (Drees) in a press release. The week of August 15, marked by a public holiday, saw the lowest level of testing since mid-August 2020, just before the second wave of the epidemic.
Two years later, the seventh wave passed but stopped receding. The number of positive cases has stagnated for two weeks above 17,000 daily (average for 7 days), compared to more than 130,000 at the peak reached in mid-July, according to daily data from Public Health France.
An eighth wave in the fall
However, the trend remains downward in hospitals, where the number of “Covid patients” fell back below 15,000 earlier in the week (down from more than 21,000 at the end of July), including just under of 850 in intensive care. Thresholds still high, on the verge of an eighth wave announced several weeks ago by the health authorities.
“It is almost certain that there will be a wave in the fall,” said Professor Brigitte Autran, president of the health risk forecast committee – which succeeded the Scientific Council – in mid-August.
“What we don’t know is how big it will be,” but “it will restart and there will be a vaccination campaign that will resume in the fall,” Health Minister François Braun said last week.
Source: BFM TV
