If the media no longer do the daily count of deaths due to Covid-19, the disease continues to claim victims. However, the deaths are high at the start of the pandemic.
Indeed, during the first wave of Covid-19, Public Health France recorded up to 500 deaths per day from the virus, and 400 during the second wave. During the summer of 2021, the figures for the epidemic fell to their lowest point, with only fifteen deaths from Covid per day. With the fifth current wave, which has exploded the contaminations curve, deaths are also on the rise: around 175 deaths per day from Covid-19 have been recorded over the last seven days. In total, 124,212 people have died in France since the start of the epidemic.
If the Covid-19 kills less today than during the first two waves, it is because doctors have made progress in treating patients, particularly in intensive care, where treatments have evolved. Above all, vaccination, which prevents the onset of serious forms, has dramatically reduced mortality. In particular in nursing homes, where elderly and sometimes weak French people live, and therefore at risk. In the first two waves, the virus killed up to 2,500 residents every week. With the arrival of vaccination, which now concerns almost 100% of residents in nursing homes, including the booster dose, mortality has collapsed. The week of December 27, only 20 residents of nursing home were among the nearly 1,000 deaths from Covid-19 identified.
However, the elderly who live at home remain the ones who die the most from the disease. The week of December 27, the over 70s accounted for three quarters of the dead. In particular because some are not vaccinated, and in France, the people who die the most are the unvaccinated. Among the elderly, there are also people who are weaker, in less good health and sometimes immunocompromised, and for whom vaccines are less effective. However, without the vaccine, the results could have been much greater: according to data from Public Health France, the death rate has been divided by three among the oldest, since the arrival of the vaccine.
Santé Publique France also identifies the regions where the death rates due to Covid-19 are the highest. During the week of December 27, the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region was the one with the largest number of electronic death certificates mentioning Covid-19. It is followed by Ile-de-France, Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur and Occitanie. AT Conversely, Brittany remains the region where the least contamination is observed, and where the number of deaths from Covid-19 is the lowest.