INFOGRAPHICS. Covid-19: is France doomed to remain on a high contamination plateau? – LaDepeche.fr

the essential After an upsurge in cases of contamination in the country at the end of March, France was no doubt expecting a calm. Bad surprise: France is stagnating on a “high plateau” of infections, while the restrictive measures have almost all been lifted. Problem for the future? Is this how we should “live with the virus”? To the incessant rhythm of successive waves, France is struggling to make landfall. Far from the “peak of contamination” promised a week ago by the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, the country is once again entangled in a difficult health situation: still significant Covid-19 infections which are struggling to decrease, and hospitalizations on the rise in health establishments already affected by influenza epidemics and seasonal illnesses. Read also: Covid-19: now is not the time to “let our guard down” against the virus, warns the WHO No doubt, Omicron and its little brother BA.2 – which today represents more than 92 % of contaminations – remain well established in the territory. The number of infections is still reaching very high levels: the health authorities are recording an average of more than 135,000 new cases of contamination every day, a figure that has not dropped for two weeks, as shown in the graph below (if no graphic is not displayed, please disable your ad blocker). France is thus stuck on a “high plateau”, a situation already known. The proof by the cards: in 40 metropolitan departments, viral circulation is still on the rise. In some areas, it is at particularly high levels, such as Calvados or Corse-du-Sud where the incidence rate peaks at more than 1,800 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Orne, Côtes d’Armor, Manche and Cantal follow closely. In our region, the incidence rate approaches or exceeds 1,300 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. Far from the alert threshold still set at 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants… In this France painted in red, hospitalizations are also on the rise (+ 10% in seven days according to government figures), just like, to a lesser extent, deaths in hospital. In the economic field, the health situation also weighs: between the flu and the Covid-19, companies have recently deplored between 10 and 15% of employees on sick leave. In short, this new outbreak of fever greatly worries epidemiologists, especially since between the end of the vaccination pass and that of the compulsory wearing of a mask, France, like its neighbors, has largely lowered its guard against the spread of the virus. “What is worrying, but the near future will allow us to verify it, is to know if the end of the wearing of the mask in closed places […] will be accompanied by contamination at even higher levels. This increase may be the cause of more severe forms and more frequent long Covid”, fears for example Prof. Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Geneva. INTERVIEW Covid-19: there are more than 1.5 million contaminations every day in France, according to Antoine Flahault “The epidemic is not over”, Olivier Véran insisted last week, while congratulating himself, paradoxically, the lifting of restrictions. On Wednesday, the World Health Organization (WHO) was more categorical. “The circulation of the virus is still very active, mortality remains high and the virus is evolving in an unpredictable way “, resolutely warned Doctor Didier Houssin, president of the WHO Emergency Committee. Consequence: “The time has not come for relaxation vis-à-vis this virus, no weakness in the monitoring, testing and reporting, no laxity in public health measures and t social and no resignation with regard to vaccination”, further urged the French doctor. On this last level, France is present. Since March 14, a second booster dose has been open for people over 60, at least six months after their last injection. No doubt the other age groups will soon be invited to do the same. What if that was “living with the virus”?