Figures that lead to optimism. This Thursday, Public Health France (SpF) published its weekly epidemiological update that allows us to see more clearly the current health situation in the country during the back-to-school period.
According to this document, the incidence rate continues to decline in week 34 of this year 2022 (from August 22 to 28, editor’s note) with a figure of 181 per 100,000 inhabitants compared to 212 for the point of week 33, a 14% decline. . In fact, 123,104 new confirmed cases have been registered compared to the previous 124,248.
This decrease affects all regions of metropolitan France, as well as all age groups except for those under 10 years of age, among whom the incidence rate increases slightly (+6%). On the other hand, abroad, the situation remains tense, in particular on the island of Reunion, where the incidence is also slightly increasing.
The test positivity rate, the number of which rebounded slightly before the start of the school year, also decreased with 19% positive results compared to 20.2 the previous week, a decrease of 1.2 points. SpF also recalls that with 95% of the interpretable sequences during the final Flash S33 survey, the Omicron variant and its BA.5 subline “circulate almost exclusively in France”.
Vaccination stagnates
Logically, the drop in these indicators has a direct consequence on hospital pressure. Thus, according to this same epidemiological point, visits to the Emergency Department for suspected Covid-19 have been reduced by 13% (2,227 compared to 2,562 previously) while new hospitalizations have been reduced by 25% (2,304 compared to 3,079 in Europe in one week).
New admissions to intensive care services follow the same path and decrease by 9% with 285 in the entire territory compared to 313 according to the last point. As for deaths from coronavirus, the figure drops weekly from 337 to 257, a decrease of 24%.
Finally, regarding vaccination, Public Health France indicates that it remains insufficient, “particularly in the overseas departments and regions and in the elderly, in particular for the second booster dose”. According to this last point, there is a “stability of the vaccination coverage of the booster dose in 75.4% among those aged 18 and over and 85.3% among those aged 65 and over”. For the second booster dose, the figures level off at 27.0% of people aged 60 to 79, that is, 32.9% of eligible people, and 35.1% of people aged 80 years or older (46.2% of eligible people).
To keep the contamination figures low, the press release finally advises “apply barrier gestures to protect fragile people and follow the recommended measures in case of symptoms, positive test or risk contact”.
If the eighth wave of Covid-19 seems inevitable, it still seems a long way off. In mid-August, Professor Brigitte Autran, chair of the health risk anticipation committee, What Happened to the Scientific Councilassured thathe was “sure there will be a wave in the fall”season in which respiratory viruses tend to be more easily transmitted. However, he had estimated that to date it was still difficult to predict “what its magnitude will be.”
Source: BFM TV
