For ten days, the curve of daily Covid-19 contaminations has continued to point upwards. Tuesday, December 6, a new peak was reached. 105,516 people tested positive, a first since July. Nearly 75,752 were killed yesterday, Wednesday December 7. An increase of 10.8% compared to last week. This brings the positivity rate to 28.8% (+ 5.5% over seven days). This increase in cases is driven by the Omicron variant, detected at 100% among the sequenced viruses.
According to the latest report from Public Health France, nine regions “are in the epidemic phase”, according to the weekly report from Public Health France. The southern half of France seems more affected by this ninth wave of the epidemic, which appeared almost three years ago. The departments of Drôme, Gard and Hautes-Pyrénées have the highest incidence rates in the country, with nearly 900 daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Increase in hospitalizations
The last few days have been marked by a jump in contaminations and a “very sharp increase in hospitalizations, particularly among people aged 65 and over”, underlined Public Health France.
At the hospital, already largely tested by the epidemic of influenza and bronchiolitis, the number of admissions for Covid is also increasing. According to the latest figures from Public Health France, 6,560 people have been hospitalized with a Covid-19 diagnosis over the past seven days. This is 17% more than last week. On Wednesday, December 7, 1,170 people were admitted. Critical care admissions have also intensified over the past seven days, with a 15% increase. 579 patients are currently treated there.
The outbreak of the influenza epidemic, rather early this year, comes to test a health system tested by the recurrent waves of Covid, currently in full recovery, and, in babies, an epidemic of bronchiolitis unprecedented since ten years.
Call for vaccination of the most vulnerable
In this context of revival with the approach of the holidays, twelve patient associations are asking, in a tribune published by our colleagues from Parisian, the government to immediately restore the mask in places of great promiscuity. In a context of a triple epidemic, “the risks are very clear: they concern not only the most fragile, but also our hospital system, which could find itself overwhelmed, on the eve of the end of year celebrations”, they write.
Faced with the situation, Public Health France reiterated its calls for vaccination, while the campaigns launched in the fall are currently too little followed, whether for the flu or Covid reminders. Perhaps it is the fault of a vagueness around the priorities and the number of reminders to be made.
But the government does not seem to be bending over its so-called incentive, not obligation policy. At the microphone of RTL, Wednesday, December 7, Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne once again said she was unfavorable to the return of the wearing of the compulsory mask. “You have to count on everyone’s responsibility,” she said at the time.