CHILD CORONAVIRUS. As the coronavirus continues to rebound, where is the Covid-19 epidemic in children in France? Are they less, as much or more affected than the general population? Here is the latest data available…
After the multiplication of contaminations among children and in particular primary school children at the end of the year and after a high-risk return to school in January, where is the epidemic of coronavirus among the youngest in France? While vaccination of 5-11 year olds has begun, the spread of Covid-19 is very much observed among children under 12 in particular, who are less at risk of developing a serious form of Covid-19, but can facilitate the circulation of virus in the general population.
The government, via Public Health France and Data.gouv, has put in place a certain number of indicators which make it possible to follow the evolution of Covid according to age groups. In the graphs below, you will be able to follow day by day the number of positive cases detected daily in children (data at D-3), the evolution of the incidence rates over the last week, but also the last figures on the number of children hospitalized and in intensive care published each evening by the authorities.
This dashboard shows the number of children from 0 to 9 years old and from 10 to 19 years old tested positive in the latest figures communicated by Public Health France (consolidated figures at D-3, updated every evening except Friday and weekend).
PRDECISION. The evolution of the screening strategy in schools, and in particular the deployment of saliva tests for students, have obviously come to inflate these figures since mid-November. But the latter only confirm that SARS-CoV-2 circulates at least as strongly among children, a segment of the population that is mostly unvaccinated, as in the rest of the population.
If we follow the evolution of the number of positive tests reported daily among 0 to 9 year olds and 10 to 19 year olds, the different waves of the coronavirus epidemic are clearly visible among the youngest. The indicators seem to follow the same trend as the data for the general population:
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Here is the incidence rate (number of cases per 100,000) measured among 0-9 year olds and 10-19 year olds. This rate is measured over the last calendar week. The gray curve represents the incidence rate in the general population.
The Ministry of Health and Data.gouv also provide incidence rates by school level, which give an idea of the spread of the virus in finer age groups and make the link with the circulation of Covid at school. . Please note: this time the data is not delivered over the last calendar week (full week from Monday to Sunday), but over a sliding week.
How does this change in the number of cases and incidence in hospitals translate? Here is the number of children aged 0-9 and 10-19 hospitalized with coronavirus infection. Figures updated every evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
PRECISION : the figures displayed in the table of hospitalizations in children above were erroneous for several hours on Wednesday, December 1, 2021 and it is the incidence that was displayed there (it should indeed read 387.48 cases per 100,000 and 234.64 cases per 100,000). We apologize for the inconvenience caused.
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Here is the number of children aged 0-9 and 10-19 in intensive care due to coronavirus infection. Figures updated every evening between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m.
These Covid figures in children seem to draw a double observation: the youngest, who are not vaccinated before the age of 12, do indeed seem to be just as affected in France by the coronavirus (if not more depending on the period), but these contaminations do not quite translate into hospitals and intensive care units. There remains the question of the accelerator that children can constitute in the progression of the epidemic. More affected, they can potentially transmit the virus more massively in the intra-family sphere and cause a leverage effect. It is this argument which had been taken into account in particular in the choice to close the schools before the Easter holidays in 2020.