Between the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the presidential campaign, it is a topic that we would have almost forgotten.

However, the Covid-19 is still there.

According to data published on Wednesday March 9 by Public Health France, the country recorded 69,190 new cases in 24 hours, an increase of 20% compared to last Wednesday.

In detail, the whole territory is not housed in the same boat, explains Guillaume Rozier, the founder of the CovidTracker site.

“The number of positive cases is on the rise again, especially in the north of the country, and around the Mediterranean. This corresponds approximately to Zone B, whose return to school was the earliest”, specifies the health data specialist.

The number of positive cases is on the rise again, especially in the north of the country, and around the Mediterranean.

This corresponds approximately to Zone B, whose return to school was the earliest (February 21).

pic.twitter.com/CnJ1co3BS3

— GRZ (@GuillaumeRozier) March 10, 2022

Indeed, with the end of the school holidays, population mixing resumes in schools and the incidence rate increases among the youngest.

Some epidemiologists also suggest a possible relaxation in the application of barrier gestures.

Furthermore, the breakthrough of the BA.2 sub-lineage of the Omicron variant could play a role in this increase in the number of cases.

According to the first scientific studies, it would be 30% more contagious than its cousin, the BA1 subvariant.

This rebound in the epidemic is not observed only in France: a similar situation is observed in Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

The decline in indicators is marking time

However, the French government, like other European countries, intends to maintain its timetable for lifting measures against Covid-19.

From Monday, almost all the restrictions will thus disappear in France: exit the vaccination pass, the wearing of the mask indoors as well as a major part of the health protocols at school and in the workplace.

Health restrictions, such as the wearing of a mandatory mask, will only remain in force in transport, hospitals and retirement homes. 

“The French Minister of Health had declared a few weeks ago that the lifting of the measures would be based on health indicators which he had detailed. It seems that the supporters of the calendar have won the government!”, points out Antoine Flahaut.

The Swiss epidemiologist is referring here to the conditions set by Olivier Véran at the end of February to validate the lifting of restrictions.

The Minister of Health had notably mentioned "an incidence rate between 300 and 500 maximum".

However, it currently exceeds 546, according to data from Public Health France.

“The French Minister of Health had declared a few weeks ago that the lifting of the measures would be based on health indicators which he had detailed.

It seems that the calendarists have won the government!”

https://t.co/3XiMBm47XF

— Antoine FLAHAULT (@FLAHAULT) March 9, 2022

As for the number of patients in intensive care, it must have been below the 1,500 mark. Again, the account is not there.

The number of people hospitalized in intensive care for Covid-19 has just fallen below the 2,000 mark. A figure which has certainly never been so low since December 2, 2021, but still above the government's objectives.

Lifting of the #passvaccinal: " We should be at 1500 patients in sheaves: at the current rate we will be there in 2 or 3 weeks. We would also need a low incidence rate (300-500 maximum). We will reach it, and there too in 2 or 3 weeks maximum, that's good news."

@olivierveran pic.twitter.com/I0MMnyIrTK

– Public Senate (@publicsenat) February 22, 2022

"A political interest, not health"

According to the general practitioner, president of the Syndicate of the French Union for Free Medicine, Jérôme Marty, joined by France 24, this almost total lifting of restrictions, in particular the end of the ban on wearing a mask indoors, comes at the bad time.

"It wouldn't bother me if we were in a downward momentum. But it is clear that this is not the case. Above all, the end of the wearing of masks is not accompanied by any policy to renew the air in interior and avoid viral concentration in establishments open to the public. In the midst of the presidential campaign, the interest here is political, and not health, "said the president of the Syndicate of the French Union for Free Medicine (UFML).

Hospital pressure, which has been falling for several weeks in France, could therefore start to rise again, like the United Kingdom which is currently experiencing an increase in the number of hospitalizations.

>> To read on France24.com: Lifting of patents on anti-Covid vaccines: the angry question at the EU-AU summit

However, the broad vaccination coverage of the French population, natural infections and the arrival of spring should make it possible to limit the consequences of this epidemic rebound on hospitals.

“With each new outbreak, the configuration is different, because people are better vaccinated, know the disease better and know how to organize themselves better,” explains Jérôme Marty.

"The problem is that there are still five million unvaccinated and 300,000 immunocompromised people," insists the doctor.

Novavax available in the West Indies

The concern is particularly strong in Guadeloupe where the positivity rate rose again this week above the alert threshold.

The authorities therefore called on the island's population on Wednesday to be vaccinated with Novavax.

This new vaccine was deployed primarily in Martinique and Guadeloupe.

It is supposed to make it possible to convince those refractory to messenger RNA vaccines and to increase vaccination coverage which is still very insufficient in the West Indies.

In Guadeloupe, 45% of the population received a first dose, 43% a second, and only 22.5% have a complete three-dose vaccination schedule.

The collective of caregivers "Covid emergency Overseas" deplored at the end of February a 1,000th death in Guadeloupe hospitals, "an unprecedented carnage since the cholera epidemic in Guadeloupe between the end of November 1865 and March 1866".

As WHO boss Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus recalled on Wednesday, "this pandemic is far from over".

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