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Dr Gérald Kierzek (Medical Director of Doctissimo)
Summer is approaching, the masks are flying away and the Covid-19 seems far behind us. But the number of contaminations has been on the rise since the beginning of June. Could this be the harbinger of the arrival of a new wave for this summer? The answer of Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency doctor and medical director of Doctissimo.
Contaminations on the rise but reassuring figures
As of June 6, an average of 23,232 Covid-19 positive cases are sampled each day, compared to 18,000 at the end of May, according to CovidTracker. Compared to last week, contamination has increased by 30% (by sampling date, D-3).
The incidence rate is also high, and rising, at 242 – the alert threshold being set at 50. However, the data that generally tends to worry health professionals – number of people in care reviews, deaths – are rather reassuring.
Also according to CovidTracker, hospital blood pressure is 17.4, a low and stable figure. Critical care admissions are 895, down 4% from last week. Finally, there are on average 39 hospital deaths for Covid-19 each day, which corresponds to a decrease of 16%, compared to last week.
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Living with Covid-19
Although some professionals see this increase in the number of cases as the consequence of the relaxation of barrier gestures, Dr Gérald Kierzek, emergency physician and medical director of Doctissimo, does not agree.
For him, this evolution is normal, since it occurs in waves and depends on the seasons. “And the more we seek, the more we find, he adds. Let’s stop getting tested at the slightest symptom.”
But above all, he believes, the increase in the number of contaminations should not cause concern: “The Omicron variant is benign. The foreign experience – Portuguese, in particular – shows that an increase in the number of cases does not lead to an increase in hospitalizations, the fragile population is vaccinated and may have a booster vaccine at the start of the school year. Which does not mean that we should not remain vigilant.
Without doubt, we must learn to live with the coronavirus. In any case, this is the opinion of the emergency doctor. “It is illusory to want to eradicate the virus. Better to find a balance that allows us, the virus and the population, to coexist. We we’ll never have zero cases of Covid-19, and that’s okay. Viruses are part of our ecosystem”he defends.