In mainland France, only Corsica continues to resist. In its weekly report on the bronchiolitis epidemic this Wednesday, Public Health France (SPF) notes a “continuation of the significant increase in the monitoring indicators of bronchiolitis in children under 2 years of age”. The Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region, Guadeloupe and Martinique, in turn, are entering an “epidemic phase”.
Thus, “almost the entire metropolis is now in epidemic,” says SPF.
The epidemic phase means that the virus is spreading widely in the population with a rapid increase in the number of cases. If Corsica escapes you for the time being, the island is still entering the pre-epidemic phase.
“Strong tensions” in hospitals
The number of emergency room visits for bronchiolitis between week 41 (October 10-6) and week 42 (October 17-23) increased by 43%, the number of hospitalizations by 41%. In total, 4,311 children under the age of 2 were treated in the emergency room last week, p 1,405 were hospitalized.
This increase in the number of patients occurs when several pediatric services have warned about the overflow of their services. “We have strong tensions, even very strong in the region’s pediatric services”, CEO said last week of the regional health agency (ARS) of Ile-de-France, Amélie Verdier.
Health Minister François Braun assured this Sunday on BFMTV that hospitals “will take care of all sick children”, while encouraging parents to avoid overloading the emergency room. He also announced “an action plan of 150 million euros” for hospital services “in tension”, starting with pediatrics.
Source: BFM TV
