The improvement is confirmed for the spring. Fewer contaminations and fewer patients are hospitalized due to Covid-19. The epidemic continues to decline in France, according to the figures released Friday by health authorities. “The slowdown in the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 is confirmed with a drop in all the indicators”, they write, reviewing each marker of the epidemic in France.
Reduction in contamination
Starting with the new contaminations recorded each day. While this indicator should be taken with caution as it depends on the number of tests carried out, it has been significantly down since the beginning of April.
In all, 52,919 new cases positive for the Omicron variant were recorded between Thursday and Friday, compared to 59,760 cases the day before. The seven-day average, which is statistically more significant, fell to 61,628 daily infections from 84,516 a week earlier. It exceeded 130,000 in early April.
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Embellished at the hospital
The number of hospital admissions is a much more reliable indicator than new contaminations, explained epidemiologist and biostatistician Catherine Hill to L’Express last March. The number of new patients hospitalized with Covid-19 is also down to 23,579 on Friday, against 24,130 the day before, according to data from Public Health France. They were 24,883 a week ago.
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In hospitals, critical care is also affected by this drop: there were 1,591 Covid patients on Friday, against 1,629 on Thursday, and 1,645 a week earlier. Critical care patients have been fewer and fewer since the beginning of January, shortly after the appearance of the Omicron variant in France, which causes fewer serious forms of the disease.
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The incidence rate is falling
In addition, the circulation of the virus is also decreasing, even if it is still at a level well above the alert threshold set at 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants last summer by the government.
At the national level, the corrected incidence rate “decreased sharply in week 16 (-26% compared to week 15) and fell below the threshold of 1,000 cases per 100,000 inhabitants”, notes Public Health France. “This trend was observed in all age groups and was once again particularly marked among those under 20, with an incidence rate of less than 500”, emphasize the health authorities.
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However, the epidemic still caused the death of 158 people in 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths in France to 145,869 in more than two years.
On the vaccination side, the situation has changed little this week: 54.3 million people have received at least one injection (i.e. 80.6% of the total population) and 53.4 million now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 79.2% of the total population), according to figures from the Ministry of Health.