The wave of Covid-19 continues to grow in France. The number of new cases has increased by 10% in the last seven days, amounting to 75,752 people infected on Wednesday, according to data from Public Health France (SPF). The number of hospitalized patients increased by 17.1% in one week and that of people in critical care by 15.8%.
The increase in incidence in the territory is even faster. With +26.6% in seven days it reached 576.3 in France. But in several departments the incidence rate already exceeds 800.
On December 1, in its last point on this epidemic, SPF noted that “the strongest increases were again observed in Occitania and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur”.
An incidence rate of 945.1 in the Drôme
In fact, it is in the south of France that the highest incidence rates were recorded during the week of November 28 to December 4, we can observe on the Geodes portal.
The southwest is more particularly affected: in Alpes-de-Haute-Provence, the incidence rate is 835.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, in Var 820.8, in Bouches-du-Rhône 882.1, in Gard 888, 5, in the Vaucluse 858.7, in the Ardèche 846.3 and reaches a maximum of 945.1 in the Drôme.
“Today we are indeed witnessing an increase in the circulation of the virus,” explained Romain Alexandre, ARS delegate for the Alpes-Maritimes, on Wednesday at BFM Côte d’Azur, where the incidence rate is 738.
Tarn (864), Ariège (804.6), Haute-Garonne (848.1), Hautes-Pyrénées (887) or even Corrèze (859.7) also exceed this threshold of 800.
A year ago, these incidence rates would have motivated the implementation of sanitary measures in the affected areas. In September 2021, the government wrote that to raise the meters in establishments open to the public, or remove the mask at school, it was necessary to drop 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. But with vaccination and the spread of the less virulent Omicron variant, the evaluation of this criterion has evolved.
Increase in hospitalizations in Bouches-du-Rhône
Parallel to the incidence rate, “the rates of new hospitalizations increased in several regions, in particular in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté and in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, where the increases were strongest”, explains SPF in its last report.
It is in Bouches-du-Rhône that this increase is particularly notable: 94 new people were hospitalized in 24 hours, according to data from Wednesday. A growing number, well above the rest of France: in Paris, it is therefore 32.
Among the other departments most affected by an increase in new hospitalizations for Covid-19, we find the Var with 40 new patients, the Rhône (51), but also the North (47).
call for vaccination
To stop the increase in the current epidemic and avoid saturation of hospital services, caregivers call on the most vulnerable to receive their fourth dose. At the Sainte Musse hospital in Toulon (Var) “we have few complete vaccination schedules, some patients are not vaccinated at all,” Stéphanie Chamoux, head of the geriatrics department, told BFM Var.
In Hautes-Pyrénées, “the vaccination rate is good, but the recovery rate is not,” Benoît Le Pan, a pharmacist from Tarbes, explains to BFMTV, side “4th and 5th doses, we are well below the national average.
The south of France, and particularly the southeast, is one of the areas where calls for vaccination against Covid-19 have been least followed.
Source: BFM TV
