Between June 1 and August 2, 2023, 598 people were victims of drowning, according to figures published this Friday by Public Health France. A lower number than in 2022 and 2021, where 724 and 797 drownings had been registered respectively during this same period. Between 2021 and 2023, the total number of drownings has been reduced by 25% during these first nine weeks of summer.
However, “the number of drownings remains high,” stresses the health agency.
Public Health France sees a spike in drownings observed on July 8 and 9, as well as July 15. Dates that correspond to the first two weekends of the school holidays, during which the temperatures were generally favorable for bathing.
The region of Occitania and Nouvelle Aquitaine are the two regions where there have been the most drownings since the beginning of June. They were 134 and 92 respectively.
Bad weather for swimming
In particular: weather conditions. Despite temperatures 2.5°C higher than normal for the season during the month of June, the weather was “generally less favorable for swimming in the southern half of the country”, explains Public Health France. However, it is in this area where drownings are generally more numerous.
And this situation was repeated during the second half of July, during which weather conditions were “generally unfavorable for swimming,” the report says. The entire territory, with the exception of the Mediterranean basin and Corsica, experienced below-average temperatures and heavy rains. Which had not been the case in 2022 and 2021, during the same period.
Furthermore, in 2021, the comparison year proposed by Public Health France, favorable weather conditions for swimming, combined with the lifting of restrictions linked to Covid-19, contributed to the high number of drownings. The health agency then questioned “a misunderstanding of physical abilities or a deterioration in the state of health at the end of a long period of less activity.”
Death rate on the rise
With 177 total deaths out of the 598 drownings recorded between June 1 and August 2, 2023, the number of deaths is generally flat compared to the previous two years.
However, the proportion of drownings followed by death is increasing, from 22% in 2021 to 30% in 2023. “Drownings are fewer but more fatal”, summarizes Public Health France, since a third of drownings are now followed up. a quarter in 2021.
These deaths mainly affect adults, in nine out of ten cases.
These figures will change in the coming weeks as Public Health France updates its results over the summer.
The health agency also highlights the importance of continuing prevention with all audiences, of maintaining permanent surveillance of young children and of taking into account the recommendations related to weather conditions before bathing in the sea.
Source: BFM TV
