Omicron variant: what is the health situation in hospitals?

Gauthier Delomez 2:18 p.m., December 21, 2021

Will he play spoilers at the end of the year?

The Omicron variant of Covid-19 is spreading all over the world and in France, raising fears of an influx of patients in hospitals already under heavy demand since the start of the health crisis.

In the show

Tuesday, Didier Pittet, epidemiologist and head doctor of the infection prevention service of Geneva Hospitals, and Jean-François Timsit, head of the medical and infectious resuscitation service at Bichat hospital in Paris, have shared their experiences in their respective departments at the microphone of Romain Desarbres.

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The epidemiologist Didier Pittet first confirms that, according to the latest studies, the Omicron variant is "three times more contagious" than the Delta variant of Covid-19, itself being at least twice as contagious than the previous viruses.

However, it is still difficult to assess its dangerousness.

"Clinical data are still lacking to know if it is more or less dangerous than the Delta variant", he says on Europe 1, certain that this variant from South Africa will result in "a number of patients admitted in the hospital".

A variant at the origin of "macro-clusters"

If data "are lacking" on Omicron, Didier Pittet assures on the other hand that "this variant is less sensitive to both vaccination and natural infection than the Delta variant. Hence the importance of going as quickly as possible. possible at the booster dose. Because this third dose restores, in quotation marks, the ability of most vaccines to prevent serious infection with the Omicron variant ". All of this does not necessarily mean that a double vaccinated person is not protected, but they will be less protected than having received a booster dose.

Didier Pittet adds that this last variant has been documented "as being able to make 'macro-clusters', that is to say large epidemics localized in particular in Norway, in Denmark, in different places".

But to avoid this, barrier gestures remain essential, he assures us.

"If we go back to the good old habits and apply them in the most rigorous way possible, the variant does not spread", adds Didier Pittet, who does not say he is "worried" for the Christmas period. hoping that the French will be massively tested before the family reunion.

"The number of beds available (in intensive care) is zero or one" at Bichat hospital in Paris

A health situation which is however already tense at the Bichat hospital in Paris. "The number of beds available is zero or one, with around a third of patients with Covid and two thirds with other diseases", explains Jean-François Timsit, head of the medical and infectious resuscitation service of the establishment. But the doctor, who currently has no patients with the Omicron variant, points out that none of them has reached "significant severity rates". He expects to receive it within ten days, with the spread of the new variant in Île-de-France.

Jean-François Timsit points the finger at non-vaccinated people, who occupy 4/5 of his patient population.

"The last fifth corresponds to people who have organ transplants, severe immunosuppression, who are unable to create antibodies and who, despite three doses of the vaccine, are not protected," he says.

For him, the people who chose not to receive a dose of vaccine, it is "suicidal and irresponsible".

"We need national solidarity and a collective effort," calls Jean-François Timsit, in favor of compulsory vaccination.