Worrying indicators at the end of January on the Covid-19 epidemic?

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20 minutes

  • Santé Publique France publishes a weekly update every Thursday evening, in particular revealing the indicators smoothed over a week for contamination, hospitalizations and resuscitation.

  • In the third week of January, the increase in incidence and its repercussions on French hospitals continued.

  • Important figures at a time when the executive may announce new restrictions.

Numbers eagerly awaited each week.

Maybe even more at the end of January.

Because the executive faces a complicated dilemma: confine for the third time or stay on a 6 p.m. curfew?

The government is witnessing an outcry from some French people who say they refuse a new confinement and is worried about the distress of young and old.

Debates continue among caregivers: some call for strict confinement as soon as possible, while others explain that all resuscitations are not full and that the psychological health of the French has been weakened by these months of restrictions.

Increase in indicators

The government wanted clear numbers before making a decision.

The weekly point of Public Health France, published Thursday evening and decrypted Friday morning for the press, gives some clarifications.

Between January 18 and 24, contaminations, hospitalizations and admissions to intensive care were on the rise, while they had stabilized during the second week of January.

“This progression is all the more worrying as the level remains high: 27,000 hospitalizations and 3,000 in intensive care,” explains Delphine Viriot, of Public Health France.

But we are not witnessing an explosion in hospitalizations, unlike some European countries.

And deaths remain stable, but at a high level: around 2,500 per week.

"There is always a lag: deaths occur at a distance from hospitalizations, and the data on deaths are not consolidated," underlines Delphine Viriot.

Concern about variants

Still, Olivier Véran worried Thursday to witness an "epidemic within the epidemic" because of the English and South African variants, which are spreading and would make the disease more contagious.

This, in the long term, risks bottlenecking the intensive care services.

The weekly update from Public Health France reveals that in the third week of January, the authority spotted 299 cases of the so-called English variant and 40 cases of the so-called South African variant.

"But these increases are partial, nuance Bruno Coignard, of Public Health France.

A second flash study was organized on Wednesday January 27, we should have the final results at the end of next week.

It should give a clearer idea of ​​the progression of the English variant.

The first flash survey, on January 7 and 8, showed that 3.3% of positive cases for Covid-19 were linked to this variant.

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