Why the Lille metropolis is one of the most affected by the Covid

The metropolis of Lille is particularly affected by the epidemic.

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• Lille is the second metropolis in France most affected by the coronavirus epidemic.

• Roubaix, Tourcoing and Lille are the three municipalities with the highest incidence rates.

• An epidemiologist and an infectious disease specialist deliver

  their analysis

  to

  20 minutes

  .

The recipe for sad success.

On October 24, the European Metropolis of Lille (MEL) posted an incidence rate of 921 people positive for Covid-19 per 100,000 inhabitants.

A figure which places the MEL in second position of the metropolises most affected by the coronavirus epidemic, just behind Saint-Etienne.

A worrying but not surprising finding for the specialists interviewed by

.

Because it is a large metropolis, the MEL ticks all the boxes that make it a territory conducive to the spread of an epidemic.

The National Federation of Health Observatories (Fnors) has established territorial profiles to help decision-makers in the context of the coronavirus crisis.

In this document, the MEL belongs to class "D", that of metropolitan areas grouping together the most factors favoring the circulation of the virus.

“There is no scientific explanation and certainly not a single reason.

It is the conjunction of several factors that brings us here today ”, estimates Professor Daniel Camus, infectious disease specialist at the Institut Pasteur in Lille.

Elements "extrinsic" to the Covid crisis

For Professor Camus, there are constant causes that we find: "the quality of housing, overcrowding, lack of ventilation", lists the scientist.

"If you put too many people in a small apartment, the viral transmission takes place very quickly," he continues.

This overcrowding of housing, particularly true in Roubaix and Tourcoing, "exposes residents more to contagion and can limit, or even prevent, the isolation of people in the event of contamination", explains Fnors.

But this is not the only socio-economic factor to take into account.

"We know that people in a precarious situation are part of the categories of vulnerable people," says Sylvie Haeghebaert, epidemiologist at Public Health France.

"There is really a very social aspect which translates into lower incidence rates in the richer municipalities of the MEL and vice versa", adds Professor Camus.

Youth, a double-edged sword

According to INSEE, in 2017, more than 40% of the MEL population was under 30 years old.

Without wanting to throw stones at young people, we note however that the evolution of incidence rates in the metropolis has notably "accelerated at the beginning of September with the start of school and university", remarks Sylvie Haeghebaert.

Let us remember the famous Touquet cluster at the origin of the closure of two metropolitan schools.

"The highest incidence rates were initially found in young adults between 15 and 34 years", insists the epidemiologist.

The behavior of the youngest in the face of this crisis also worries the infectious disease specialist from Pasteur Lille.

He also went to question many of them: “There is the question of the perceived seriousness of the disease.

For many young people, it is just a bad cold.

They don't understand the constraints they are under for something that affects older people more, ”says Prof. Camus.

High density that doesn't help

In the MEL, on average, there are 1,765 inhabitants / km2.

The municipalities of Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing and Villeneuve d'Ascq alone account for 43% of metropolitan residents.

"The population concentration can be considered as an aggravating vector of contagion by promoting the circulation of viruses within the population", advances Fnors.

"The density of populations is indeed a factor of multiplication of the contacts at risk", adds the epidemiologist of Public Health France.

But she adds that it is above all “the mixing of populations and insufficient adherence to recommendations and cautious behavior [which] led to a rapid and uncontrollable deterioration of the epidemiological situation from the beginning of October.

"

Suddenly, it should be noted that the MEL is not particularly a bad student.

It suffers from what Sylvie Haeghebaert calls the “metropolis factor”.

"It is a well-known phenomenon and observed every year during seasonal epidemics," she insists.

The whole thing being to know why this "metropolitan factor" has a much less impact on Bordeaux, whose incidence rate is today only 157 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

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