4,608 hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the last seven days, a 7.9% increase in admissions. Less than a month before the Christmas holidays, the monitoring indicators of the Covid-19 epidemic are increasing and this year the SARS-CoV-2 virus is circulating with other winter viruses, which raises fears of an overflow of hospital services In the next weeks
The end of the year celebrations bring together several factors that could increase the epidemics currently underway. On the one hand, the gathering of several people in rooms that are usually poorly ventilated in winter, due to the cold, facilitates the transmission of viruses. On the other hand, Christmas is a time of mixed populations with fragile people such as the elderly, more prone to severe forms.
“A very special conjunction”
On the side of Covid-19, “the risk of hospital saturation is lower than in previous years” thanks to vaccination and contagion immunity, epidemiologist Mircea Sofonea explains to BFMTV.com, “but it is still present, we continue to die from covid
The difficulty of this end of the year comes mainly from the fact that hospitals are in an “unfavorable conjunction”, he declares, with a staff tested by three years of pandemic, a hospital that struggles to recruit and a resumption of the Circulation of different respiratory viruses.
“We are in a very particular conjunction with epidemics of bronchiolitis, influenza and Covid, not to mention the circulation of other winter viruses,” explains infectologist Benjamin Davido, a Covid-19 reference at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital, to BFMTV.com. from Garches, in the Hauts-de-Seine.
These circumstances raise fears of an overload of patients in the hospital, possibly with, in the worst case, postponements of care and transfers to other establishments.
“Return to social distancing habits”
So that these epidemics do not increase and the hospital is overwhelmed at Christmas, “we must anticipate,” says Philippe Amouyel, an epidemiologist and professor of public health at the University Hospital of Lille. “We have to prepare for this upstream, preventing this (Covid-19, editor’s note) bullish trend from persisting. In a month, we can squash a rising wave,” but for that we must “resume social distancing habits.”
On December 8, 2021, the Scientific Council recommended for “Christmas meal-type family gatherings” to “limit the number of participants, ensure that frail people have received their booster dose, ventilate the premises regularly and carry out self-monitoring” . -test the same day or an antigen test the day before or the same day of the event”.
These recommendations remain on the table this year, explain the scientists interviewed.
Mircea Sofonea thus calls for carrying out Covid-19 tests before an event that brings the world together, especially if there are fragile people, but also after contacts considered risky. It is also recommended to wear a mask when gathering in poorly ventilated rooms, which is often the case in winter. Ventilation, hand washing and social distancing also continue to be measures to limit infection.
These recommendations for Covid-19 are also valid for other winter respiratory viruses. “We have not explained enough that the mask is a protection against other respiratory infections in autumn and winter”, underlines Benjamín Davido.
Applying health protection measures against Covid-19 also means protecting yourself from other diseases.
Get vaccinated against Covid-19 and the flu
Everyone also remembers the importance of vaccination, while a fourth dose against Covid-19 is available. For Covid-19, it is possible to get vaccinated six months after your last injection or three months after an infection, the government site explains. The vaccine protects in particular against severe forms of the disease and is adapted to variants of the virus.
“There is also the flu vaccine”, adds Mircea Sofonea.
After two years with weak flu epidemics, herd immunity is weakening, especially among the most fragile. Although “we know that we avoid between 30 and 40,000 hospitalizations thanks to vaccination” and “at the same time we will protect the hospital system,” Bruno Lina, a professor of virology at Lyon University Hospital, explained on BFMTV.
However, these two vaccination campaigns are not complete.
“Today we can anticipate, we have the tools to fight” against these epidemics, recalls Philippe Amouyel, “we must use them”.
“The precautionary measures of the Covid have disappeared”
Since last year, the latest restrictions and measures have affected public spaces, such as the mandatory use of a mask on transport, which became optional last May. Since then, there are still recommendations available, but a large part of the population no longer wears the mask in public space and generally relaxes with barrier gestures.
“The precautionary measures of the Covid have disappeared,” laments Benjamín Davido.
It stresses the importance of using available methods to prevent ongoing epidemics from escalating, remembering that “living with the virus” does not mean “pretending it no longer exists”. Living with this means that the barrier measures “are long-term,” he recalls, and you have to “not wait for the Government to say put on the mask to put it on.”
Philippe Amouyel, for his part, underlines the importance of preparing the Christmas holidays in advance in terms of health, of “communicating, of clearly explaining why” barrier measures are always important “so that we all have a Merry Christmas”.
Source: BFM TV
