Covid-19: are we heading towards a resumption of the epidemic?

in collaboration with

Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)

“An epidemic recovery seems to be starting, but we will have to wait a few days before confirming it. The number of cases published today is up (+7.5%) compared to that of last Monday. On average over the past week, the number of cases continues to decline (-7.5%)”.

The tweet from Guillaume Rozier, founder of Covid Tracker, dates from March 7. After a few weeks of calm, is the Covid-19 epidemic starting again? Although it is still too early to say, monitoring the virus will be crucial in the days to come, to determine if we are on the verge of a new wave.

Positivity rate and incidence rate on the rise

As our colleague journalist from Le Parisien Nicolas Berrod points out, the maps showing the evolution of the incidence rate of Covid-19 and that of the school zones are superimposed, in particular for zone B, where the pupils have returned to the benches. school two weeks ago. From there, assuming that the resumption of the epidemic is linked to the return to school of children, there is only one step.

In the Alpes-Maritimes, our colleagues from Nice Matin also report “an epidemic rebound that is becoming clearer” with “an increase in cases on the rise for the second day in a row”. Finally, elsewhere in Europe, the same observation. Covid-19 cases are up for a few days in Spain, Italy and Germany.

“Let’s stop talking about ‘waves'”

Asked about the subject, Dr Kierzek once again reminds us that cohabitation with the virus must now take place. “We must stop panicking at the slightest warning. It is illusory to believe that we will make the virus disappear, we must live with it and stop testing massively, but do so only in the event of serious symptoms. We must find a way of managing the epidemic that comes out of panic, and go into routine mode” says the doctor.

“We must also stop talking about a wave: we can clearly see that the last wave of Omicron had nothing to do with the first wave of the initial virus. Let’s also stop focusing on number counters that make no sense. We must now focus on the treatment of the two real causes of this crisis: the improvement of our health system and the education of the population in preventive measures which involve a better lifestyle and a strengthening of the immune system..