the majority BA.2 sub-variant, responsible for an epidemic rebound?

the majority BA2 sub variant responsible for an epidemic rebound

COVID. For the past few days, the number of new coronavirus contaminations has been rising slightly in France. The BA.2 sub-variant is now the majority according to the latest epidemiological point unveiled by Public Health France on Thursday March 11, 2022.

[Mis à jour le 11 mars 2022 à 11h33] The latest figures for the coronavirus in France suggest a resurgence of the epidemic in France. The fact that the BA.2 variant is now the majority may be the cause. Thursday March 10, 74,000 new contaminations were recorded by Public Health France in 24 hours, or 14,500 more compared to last Thursday. Similarly, the seven-day average increased by 2,000 new cases in one day, bringing the total to 58,300. In addition, the incidence rate rose to 567 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, taking 20 points higher in 24 time.

The test positivity rate follows the same trend. After a continuous decline in February, this indicator has also risen very slightly since last weekend. Another indicator up slightly, the reproduction coefficient of the virus, it stood at 0.63 on February 27. It is still less than 1, which means that we are in retreat from the epidemic. But this indicator has also stopped falling to resume an upward trend.

On the other hand, hospital pressure continues to decrease. As of March 10, 21,287 patients were hospitalized with Covid, including 1,928 cared for in critical care wards. Two indicators down on average over seven days. Be careful, hospitalizations take time to be impacted by the resurgence of an epidemic wave. Thus, the effect of a possible stabilization of new daily cases will only be observed in several weeks on the hospital figures. For more information on the figures relating to the coronavirus epidemic in France, you can consult our dedicated article.

Learn more

According to last epidemiological point of Public Health France (SPF), published Thursday March 10, in week 09, “in week 09, the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 slowed slightly compared to the previous four weeks (-7%), auguring stagnation at a high incidence rate”.

  • In mainland France, the incidence rate corrected decreases in all regions in week 09 (February 28-March 6, 2022), in comparison with week 7 (February 21-28, 2022) and remains below the threshold of 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, being 546 (i.e. -7% compared to the previous week, when the incidence rate was 586 positive cases per 100k inhabitants). This decrease was observed in all age groups and in all regions, notes SPF in its point. On the other hand, the positivity rate (20.6%, +0.2 points) is rising again in all age groups.
  • The effective reproduction rate of the virus, says R, increased in week 09. It is evaluated at 0.81 (against 0.63 in W08).
  • The number of new hospitalizations of Covid-19 patients fell in S09. The indicators by date of admission showed 5,386 new hospitalizations of patients with Covid-19 in week 09 (compared to 6,948 in S08, i.e. -22%). There were also 632 new critical care admissions of Covid patients in S09, compared to 834 in S08 (i.e. -24%).
  • The Omicron variant of the coronavirus is still the majority in France in S09, suspected and confirmed in 99.9% of Flash survey interpretable sequence screening tests in S09 (preliminary data). The BA.2 sub-lineage, sub-variant of the Omicron mutation, is still increasing and is now the majority (52% of cases in S09 vs 43% in S08).
  • Vaccination against Covid-19 is still progressing: as of March 8, 2022, 79.4% of the total population had received a complete primary vaccination and 72.8% of those aged 18 and over had received a booster dose (82.6% among eligible people) and 82.9% among those aged 65 and over (91.0% among those eligible).

Follow the evolution of the coronavirus in your municipality thanks to the map below. Click on a department to display the list of municipalities. Also find all the details on this mapping and the complete point by city and by department in our article on the Covid map in France.

Click on a department to consult the list of its cities.

Since mid-October 2020, Public Health France has been communicating incidence data (number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants) at municipal level. The figures are at this stage communicated according to a scale (10, 20, 50, 150, 250, 500, 1000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants). The data is expressed over a sliding week, which means that it is calculated on a D-day from tests carried out between 3 and 9 days previously. To access information relating to the coronavirus in your municipality, enter its name in the search engine or click on its department in the map below.

As a reminder, the incidence rate corresponds to the number of new cases of Covid-19 over a period of one week, compared to the total population of a territory (country, region, department or municipality). This indicator is generally expressed as the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The screening rate gives the number of people having carried out a screening test for the coronavirus out of the total number of inhabitants, during the period. It is also most often expressed per 100,000 inhabitants. Finally, the test positivity rate gives the percentage of positive tests for the coronavirus, compared to the total number of tests carried out over the period.

lint-1