Will the Covid-19 be the annoying guest at our Christmas tables? The successor to the Scientific Council, the Covars (health risk monitoring and forecasting committee), will present a new opinion on the epidemic situation in France this Monday afternoon, and in particular on the issue of wearing a mask, a few days before Christmas .
Ten days ago, the figures were skyrocketing, raising fears of an epidemic outbreak by the end of the year. But during a press conference on Friday, Santé Publique France stressed that the current wave appeared to be reaching its peak, even if hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise for the time being.
Indicators below…
With 37,264 new confirmed cases on Sunday, a 19.7% drop in seven days, the decline seems to be confirmed. This figure, which had once again exceeded 100,000 at the beginning of December, has been falling since December 13. The incidence rate has also dropped: 594.3 on Thursday, or -4.8% in seven days.
The reproduction rate of the virus, which stood at 1.12 in the week of December 5, compared to 1.21 the previous week, also seems to show a decline in the epidemic.
“What we are seeing at the national level is a slight drop in the positivity rate”, but “new hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients continue to increase” and “deaths (…) continue to rise”, summarized Nicolas Methy, an expert from Public Health France.
The wave continues in the hospital
In the hospital, in fact, the numbers continue to rise. More than 24,000 people were hospitalized with a covid-19 diagnosis, according to the latest figures from Public Health France on Friday, an increase of more than 10% in a week. The same trend in intensive care, where almost 1,400 patients were treated on Friday, 15% more in a week.
More than 700 hospital deaths have been recorded in the last seven days, again according to the latest data on Friday, a number that is rising sharply.
This wave is also part of a context of a “triple epidemic” that is putting the health system to the test. Covid is in fact added to the flu, whose epidemic has just spread through the metropolis, and to bronchiolitis, at record levels for more than ten years in infants.
The fourth dose campaign also remains stagnant. In detail, as of December 12, only 12.6% of people aged 60 to 79 eligible for this campaign had received a reminder adapted to the Omicron variant, and 16% of those aged 80 or over.
Source: BFM TV
