The past week has seen "a continued increase in all flu indicators in mainland France", indicates the public health agency, observing that "all metropolitan areas are currently in epidemic".
Corsica, until then the last region spared, has gone into the epidemic phase.
The rise of the flu has repercussions on city medicine and the hospital.
The intensity of activity linked to the epidemic has increased there over the past week, going from “low” to “moderate” in both cases.
Outside mainland France, the flu remains present in French Guiana, but the epidemic there appears to be on the decline.
This flu outbreak is unusually late in the season.
In recent years, the peak of the epidemic – measured by the consultation rate in relation to the number of inhabitants – took place in February.
This phenomenon was "most likely favored by the end of winter school holidays and the easing of control measures for the Covid-19 pandemic", according to Public Health France, which recalls the importance of barrier gestures.
Winter 2020-2021 was however special, due to the containment measures taken against the Covid.
They had, by extension, made it possible to block the circulation of many other microbes, such as the flu virus.
But the French, less infected than usual, are also less immunized collectively, which may have favored a resumption of the epidemic this winter.
As for the 2021-2022 flu vaccine, initial data estimate its effectiveness at 50% against all influenza viruses, but they will have to be consolidated in the coming weeks, according to the health agency.
© 2022 AFP