Never have there been so many cases of Covid-19 in France. A few days before the New Year’s festivities, the fifth wave of the epidemic continues to swell.
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[EN VIDÉO] Are we protected against Covid having been infected? Coronavirus infection induces an acquired immune response. But for how long is it effective against variants?
Yesterday, 179,807 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in France. Unheard of since the start of theepidemic. For the Christmas holidays, the French have been massively tested, by PCR or with tests that are less reliable but whose results are obtained more quickly. Among the millions of PCR tests achieved, 8.5% came back positive. At the national level, the rate ofimpact of the coronavirus is 799.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Omicron gradually cannibalizes Delta
the Delta variant is largely responsible for these dizzying numbers, but the Omicron variant is gaining more and more ground. The Delta variant was present in 84.3% of the samples sequenced the week of December 13, and the variant Omicron present in the remaining 14.8%. A tiny fraction of the sequenced samples contains another variant. Alpha variants, Beta and Gamma have completely disappeared from the territory.
The share of Omicron variant in sequencing continues to increase: the week of December 6, it represented only 1.5% of the samples sequenced. A total of 2,831 cases of the Omicron variant, confirmed by sequencing, are now present in France.
Children and young adults most affected by Covid-19
While at the start of the Covid-19 epidemic, SARS-CoV-2 primarily infected the elderly, today the epidemic has shifted to younger age groups. The highest incidence rate concerns 30-39 year olds, followed by 20-29 year olds, 40-49 year olds, 10-19 year olds and 0-9 year olds.
The 30-39 year olds are among the least vaccinated (86.8%) with those over 80 years old (86%) and 12-17 year olds (77.8%) – for them, vaccination has only just become available. Immunization status is not sufficient to explain the high incidence rates for the youngest age groups. They are also the most active populations and the most in contact with others. According to the figures of Public health France, an infected person infects an average of 1.2 others.
Although the coronavirus infects young people, hospitalizations are not to be outdone. In the last seven days, 7,493 patients have been hospitalized for Covid, 1,751 patients required critical care and 1,069 have died (data stopped on December 24). Thanks to the vaccination campaigns, we are far from the saturation peak of spring 2020 with a larger number of confirmed cases. The measures announced by the government may make this fifth wave meteoric epidemic.
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