Coronavirus: France passes the 40,000 dead mark (Illustration) -

Tristan Reynaud / SIPA

  • On Friday, the incidence of the Covid-19 epidemic in Val-d'Oise reached 457 cases per 100,000 inhabitants after a peak at the end of October at 615.

  • During the first wave, the department recorded a 92% increase in mortality.

  • The occupancy rate of intensive care beds is 93%.

This is a first place that Val-d'Oise would have gone well: last week, this department in the outer suburbs had the highest rate of new coronavirus contaminations in Ile-de-France.

According to figures published by Public Health France on Friday, 476 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants were identified, an incidence 21% higher than that of Paris and 4% compared to the national average.

These data revive the memory not so far of the first wave in this department which was one of the most strongly and the most durably affected, the last of the hexagon to be kept in "red zone" after confinement.

An INSEE study published in June reported 92% more deaths between March 2 and May 10, 2020 compared to previous years.

At the time, the health authorities had put forward several hypotheses to explain the virulence of Covid-19 in Val-d'Oise: the proximity of the Oise, where the first clusters were detected in February, the vitality community and religious life, particularly in Sarcelles, with the holding of several gatherings before confinement, the density of housing ...

Social and economic inequalities

These are all elements which, combined with social and economic inequalities, made the epidemic difficult to control.

Because faced with Covid-19, those most at risk are paradoxically the most exposed.

And on this point, the situation has hardly changed from one confinement to another.

Beyond age, the coronavirus affects in greater proportions of populations with pathologies often associated with precariousness: obesity, diabetes or hypertension.

However, it is often these same populations who find themselves on the "front line": cashier, maintenance worker, carer ... "In this department, a large part of the population works in so-called" essential "trades, those who did not stop during confinement or who were unable to telework, ”analyzed in June the director of the Ile-de-France Regional Health Agency, Aurélien Rousseau.

To this is added the promiscuity of housing.

How can one explain, however, that this department once again displays a more alarming record than certain neighboring departments with a similar economic and social fabric?

In Seine-Saint-Denis, the poorest department in France, the incidence is around 426 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

For the time being, the health authorities believe that it is too early to put forward hypotheses, the data being still too fluid.

Especially since to look at it more, if the incidence is higher in the Val-d'Oise, the rate of positivity of the tests, it is higher in Seine-Saint-Denis (26.8 against 24, 3 at the end of last week): the curves could therefore still change rapidly.

Our file on the coronavirus

In both departments, the indicators seem to have stalled since the end of October but the drop appears more marked in the Val-d'Oise: on October 28, the incidence was around 615 cases per 100,000 inhabitants , against 533 in Seine-Saint-Denis.

The fact remains that in both departments, hospital tension is at its peak: the bar of 100% of resuscitation beds occupied by Covid + patients could be reached during the week.

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