In a Toulouse vaccination center.

Drawing.

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F. Scheiber - Sipa

  • At the Toulouse University Hospital, the number of Covid patients is experiencing a "plateau", including in intensive care.

  • A slight rejuvenation of severe patients suggests that vaccination of older people is producing its first effects.

  • But we must remain cautious and wait for the next trends, without relaxing the vigilance on barrier gestures.

The "plateau" is certainly "high" but it is indeed there.

According to Marc Penaud, the director of the Toulouse University Hospital, the number of Covid patients in the establishment has been hovering around 170 for two weeks now, when it had reached 190 patients at the height of the first wave.

The "plateau" is also valid for patients received in critical care, around 70 for the past two weeks.

As from the beginning, they are generally "elderly men, suffering from comorbidities, diabetes or obesity", indicates infectious disease specialist Muriel Alvarez.

But in her intensive care unit at Purpan, Béatrice Riu also notes a rejuvenation of patients.

"It may be cyclical, the sample is small but last week out of 15 Covid patients, 14 were under 65", and among them thirty or four years old suffering from significant obesity.

An effect of vaccination in the over 75s?

"The vaccination of older people is well underway, this may be an explanation," says Muriel Alvarez.

“It is also possible that the elderly not yet vaccinated protect themselves better and that it is a combination of the two”, suggests the virologist Jacques Izopet.

Fewer requests for hospitalization from nursing homes

The intuition is the same for the geriatrician Hélène Villars who is monitoring the situation in nursing homes in Haute-Garonne.

“Subjectively, there are actually fewer hospital requests,” she says.

Even if there are still 25 establishments in a cluster situation, 680 sick residents and around 60 deaths per week, to date three quarters of the residents have received a first vaccine injection.

“We are not out of the woods yet, tempers Jacques Izopet.

It's a chase.

The circulation of the virus and its English variant remains important in Haute-Garonne The specialist insists in particular on the need to continue at the national level the genetic screening of positive cases.

Because the selection made by the vaccine can also promote the emergence of other variants.

In addition, the nursing staff of the CHU call not to relax the barrier gestures.

In pediatrics, the number of children with gastroenteritis - 10 to 12 per day - is the same as at the beginning of last year.

This is a sign that hand washing or the use of hydroalcoholic gel is weakening.

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  • Covid 19

  • Vaccine

  • Society

  • Coronavirus

  • Toulouse

  • Chu