Covid-19: back-to-school wave, hospitalizations... Update on the situation

Europe 1 with AFP 2:58 p.m., October 07, 2022

The back-to-school wave of Covid-19, which began in early September in France, continues to rise in terms of contamination and hospitalizations, according to the weekly report from the health authorities.

Last week, the circulation of the virus progressed “strongly throughout the metropolitan territory, in particular among the oldest”, summarized the public health agency France in a report given Thursday evening.

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Over this period (the week starting September 26), "the increase also continued at the level of hospital indicators", with a marked increase in hospital admissions with a Covid diagnosis, including in intensive care.

More than 65,000 new cases recorded on Thursday

The most recent data dates from Thursday when 65,537 new cases were recorded, against 51,366 a week earlier.

The total number of hospitalized patients, at more than 16,000, has returned to its level of mid-August.

After experiencing several waves since the start of the year, the Covid-19 epidemic had fallen to a particularly low level at the end of August.

But the contaminations then rebounded, in a context notably marked by the start of the school year.

This context led the government to bring forward the start of the anti-Covid vaccination campaign to the beginning of October, intended for the most vulnerable and initially planned to accompany that against the flu from the middle of the month.

Back to the obligation of the mask in closed places?

The health authorities do not exclude, moreover, a return to the obligation to wear the mask in closed places, a possibility openly mentioned this week by the Covars, the body which succeeded the Scientific Council.

The Ministry of Health "does not forbid" such a measure, Minister François Braun said on RTL on Tuesday, nevertheless ensuring for the time being "trust the French" to take protective measures themselves.

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However, the proportion of French people wearing the mask in public fell in September to the lowest level since the start of the health crisis, shows the new edition of the CoviPrev survey by Public Health France on the evolution of behavior during the epidemic. .

"Since wearing a mask is no longer compulsory in closed public places", a majority say they no longer wear it or wear it less often, especially in closed public places (76%, compared to 58% in May), in work (70%, against 57%), in public transport (61%, against 23%).

Respect for the barrier gestures in question

This is also the case in the presence of elderly or vulnerable people (58%, against 44%), according to the survey, carried out from September 12 to 19 with a representative sample of 2,000 adults.

To explain their less respect for barrier gestures than at the start of the pandemic, the French argue that "certain gestures are no longer compulsory, such as wearing a mask in certain places" (56%), that "most people are vaccinated (43%), that they are "too restrictive on a daily basis" (23%).

Respect these gestures next winter, some French people say they are ready to do so in the event of symptoms at home or a loved one, or an epidemic.

But "out of forgetfulness", "weariness" or a feeling of excessive stress, they might not.