Covid-19: tests, hospitalizations... Update on the situation at the end of March in France

Europe 1 with AFP 17:02 p.m., March 30, 2023

Covid has been on the rise since the beginning of March without a negative impact on hospitalizations, but monitoring the epidemic has become more difficult with policy changes on testing. Last week, incidence and positivity rates "continued to rise, while remaining at low levels," according to the latest report from Public Health France. The test positivity rate reached 16.6% compared to 14% the previous week.

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55,000 new cases confirmed last week

Public Health France reported 55,088 new confirmed cases, up from 47,626 the week before. "There has been a clear recovery since the beginning of March," epidemiologist Mahmoud Zureik told AFP. "There are between 8,000 and 10,000 new cases per day but given the current testing policy, these figures are certainly largely underestimated," he added. Since the beginning of the month, Covid tests are no longer fully and systematically covered by Social Security for French vaccinated, even if this full reimbursement is maintained for certain categories, such as the elderly.

Last week, the number of tests carried out stood at 368,000, the lowest since the beginning of the epidemic. "We have almost become blind to the health situation in the absence of reliable indicators, including hospitals," Zureik said, calling for better "surveillance". No "alarmism" for all that, according to the professor of public health.

New hospitalizations down

Last week, new hospitalizations were down or stable in most regions. "The level of vaccine boosters adapted to the Omicron variant remained insufficient," Public Health France stressed. Only 23.3% of those aged 60-79 and 26.0% of those aged 80 and over received this reminder. In a study just published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM), the scientific interest group EPI-PHARE constituted by ANSM and CNAM showed that there was no increase in the risk of serious cardiovascular events with bivalent mRNA vaccines against Covid-19 compared to monovalent vaccines.

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The World Health Organization (WHO) also estimated on Wednesday that healthy adults do not require an additional dose of Covid vaccines, beyond primary vaccination and a first booster, the health benefits being minimal.