Updated on 11/24/2021
2 min read
According to government spokesman Gabriel Attal, the number of new coronavirus contaminations is exploding. But that does not mean that the impact on hospitalizations is significant.
Should we fear the fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic? Asked during the Great Meeting Europe 1 / CNews / Les Échos on November 21, Gabriel Attal said that it was starting “dazzlingly”.
5th wave: no major hospital impact
The government spokesperson clarified that there was an increase in the number of coronavirus cases of “almost 80%”Over a week, with 17,000 cases per day on average. He added that the incidence rate was 164 per 100,000 inhabitants, while it was “to 100 at the start of the week”.
However, nothing to worry about for the moment. Doctor Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician, explains that it is necessary to distinguish between positive PCR test and illness: contamination is not necessarily synonymous with symptoms and hospitalization. “The numbers will necessarily increase: we arrive in the winter, it’s cold, we are more indoors. We will be at 20,000, 30,000, 40,000 contaminations like our English neighbors, but they passed this fifth wave without there being any hospital impact. There have been many positive cases but few hospitalizations, and it is very likely that in France it is the same thing.”
In its epidemiological update of November 18, Public Health France noted that the new hospitalizations were “stable or increasing in all regions”: + 15% compared to the previous week (2143 versus 1859). New admissions to critical care services increased by 11% (507 vs. 458).
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Wave 5: the importance of vaccination
According to Gabriel Attal, there is “elements that can both worry us and make us confident”. He underlines in fact that “we see that there is a very strong increase in contamination, but we also know that in France, we have a very wide vaccination coverage [et] we are rather ahead of our neighbors on the vaccination booster”. Dr Kierzek also insists on the importance of continuing to vaccinate the most vulnerable in particular – more than 10% of those over 80 are still not vaccinated.
The government spokesperson also insisted on the role of the health pass in controlling the epidemic, the logic of which is to “put stress on unvaccinated people rather than vaccinated people”. According to him, the situation in France is today less alarming than that of other countries.
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