Last week was marked by a "resumption of circulation" of the coronavirus and an increase in hospitalizations, summarized Public Health France, in its weekly report on the epidemic.
It is currently difficult to obtain precise details of the number of cases in France, due to a social movement by biology laboratories.
But the data transmitted by pharmacies clearly show a resumption of cases.
This marks the end of a brief lull in the epidemic in recent weeks.
The latest wave had hit the country at the end of the summer, in a context favored by the start of the school year.
The current rebound is already reflected in an “upward recovery in new hospitalizations and admissions to critical care”, after “four weeks of decline”, underlines Public Health France.
Last week, 4,210 people were hospitalized with a diagnosis of Covid, an increase of 6%.
If the total number of hospitalized patients (less than 19,000) remains well below the highest levels observed this year, this recovery risks testing an already very difficult health system.
The bronchiolitis epidemic, which mainly affects babies, has been on an unprecedented scale for ten years.
And that of seasonal flu, although still undeclared, promises to be earlier than usual and raises fears of the impact of a "tripledemia".
In this context, while recalling the importance of barrier gestures such as wearing a mask in closed and very busy places, Public Health France encourages the French to update their anti-Covid vaccination.
This provides, since the beginning of October, a booster dose for people at risk, which include in particular all those over 60 years of age.
Among 60-79 year olds, only 31.2% are considered protected by vaccination (vaccination less than 6 months old);
among those aged 80 and over, 12% (vaccination less than 3 months old), according to data from the health agency as of November 21.
As for vaccines adapted to the Omicron variant, 6.1% of 60-79 year olds and 7.9% of 80 year olds and over received a booster with this type of serum.
© 2022 AFP