The health authorities are concerned about the co-circulation of SARS-COV-2 and influenza and bronchiolitis viruses, on this holiday, while vaccination recall rates against the COVID-19 very insufficient.
by Florence Rosier
In France, the circulation of SARS-COV-2 continues to progress, but at a less marked rate. This is the main trend of the last epidemiological point of public health France (SPF), Thursday December 15, which relates to the week of December 5 to 11 (week 49).
This rise in incidence data has nevertheless been disturbed by the strike movements of part of the part of private medical biology laboratories, SPF. The agency therefore relied on antigenic tests, mainly carried out by city pharmacies, and on the PCR tests of non -striker laboratories.
In the period examined, the incidence rate is still up, with 643 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants, versus 578 the previous week (+ 11 %). This increase was + 27 % a week earlier. A total of 436,368 new cases were confirmed over week 49, an average of 62,338 cases per day. In those under 20, however, the incidence rate is down. 2>
decrease in the “reproduction number” of the virus
At the national level, the test rate of tests is slightly decrease. “Perhaps this drop in positivity rates can announce a slowdown in this always active circulation of the virus in most regions,” analyzes Isabelle Parent, of SPF. Would the epidemic mark the step? This seems to be confirmed by the drop in the “number of reproduction” of the virus (the number of individuals that a contaminated person infects). It was 1.12 in week 49, against 1.21 the previous week.
This wave of COVID-19 is always carried by the BA.5 strain of the Omicron variant, which represented 92 % of the interpretable sequences of November 28. The bq.1.1 sub-lineage continues to increase at a regular rate, with 62 % of the interpretable sequences, versus 60 % a week earlier.
Hospitalizations and deaths remain up, even if the data must be consolidated. Between December 5 and 11, the number of new admissions to the hospital for or with COVID-19 increased by 2 % (7,475, versus 7297 the previous week). But this increase is less pronounced than the previous three weeks (it was + 20 % over week 48). As for the number of deaths in the hospital and in ESMS (establishment or social or medico-social service), it amounts to 526 (+ 8 %).
“co-circulation of respiratory viruses”
If the ninth wave of Covid-19 progresses more slowly, the concern comes from its coincidence, in this period of prete fest, with two other epidemics. On the one hand, the influenza epidemic is “exceptionally early” this year, and all its indicators are “in sharp increase in all age groups”, underlines Sibylle Bernard-Stoecklin, of SPF. On the other hand, if the peak of the bronchiolitis epidemic could have been crossed last week, “we remain on a very high level of circulation of responsible viruses”, notes Sophie Vaux, of SPF, with a ” intensity is stronger than that of the last ten years. “
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