• After a summer in scarlet red, the incidence rate of Covid-19 in Hérault has dropped, since the end of September, below the alert threshold of 50.

  • In hospitals, the pressure has decreased: on Monday, 22 patients were hospitalized at the Montpellier CHU for Covid-19, including 15 in critical care.

  • But the threat is still there.

    According to Professor Jacques Reynes, there is an essential lever to prevent a resumption of the epidemic: vaccination.

    A first dose for those who have never been vaccinated and the booster for the others.

On Monday, in Hérault, the incidence rate of Covid-19 was 43 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, over the last 7 days. After a summer in scarlet red, the figure has dropped, since the end of September, below the alert threshold of 50.

Faced with the drop in indicators, the Hérault prefecture has considerably reduced health measures in recent weeks: wearing a mask is no longer compulsory, since Saturday, in establishments open to the public, places and events including access is subject to a health pass, unless the operator or the organizer so requires.

In schools, we have dropped the mask, too.

And outside, it is no longer imposed, except in crowded places.

In hospitals, this drop in indicators reduced the pressure on services.

On Monday, 22 patients were hospitalized at the Montpellier University Hospital for Covid-19, including 15 in critical care.

"People must have a high level of antibodies"

But in Hérault, can we quickly go back, like Lozère, above the alert threshold? For Jacques Reynes, the head of the infectious and tropical diseases department at the Montpellier University Hospital, there is an essential lever to prevent a new outbreak of the epidemic: vaccination against Covid-19. It is necessary, indicates the professor, "to succeed in vaccinating those who have never been, among the fragile population, the people over 65 years and over 50 years with comorbidities". And that the people who were vaccinated at the very beginning of the campaign, "and who are over six months after the last injection", give another injection.

"The danger, continues the Montpellier professor, is that in the next four months, when the immunity wanes", the epidemic starts again.

"Because with the Delta variant, people must have a high level of antibodies," notes Jacques Reynes.

If people do not come en masse to the vaccination centers, we may be in trouble.

It will not be brutal, but gradual.

”Especially since“ a lot of people do not wear the mask correctly ”.

The risk is to "do the yo-yo, fears the doctor.

I'm not saying that we have to keep more measures, but we have to be very careful about the follow-up ”of the coronavirus epidemic.

Our file on the coronavirus

And even if the signals are green, we must not let our guard down.

On October 15, the Regional Health Agency (ARS) of Occitanie noted that “the return of usual winter epidemic symptoms in this season indicates that protective reflexes with barrier gestures tend to decrease.

Now is not the time to lower our collective vigilance.

"In particular hand washing, a" simple and effective reflex, to fight against the transmission of viruses ", recalls the ARS.

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  • Languedoc-Roussillon

  • Covid 19

  • Hospital

  • Montpellier

  • Coronavirus