the incidence rate exceeds the alert threshold in sixty departments

Is France at risk of facing a fifth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic? For the past fortnight, the epidemic has rebounded. Indeed, the incidence rate is increasing almost everywhere in the country – a 12% increase across France in one week. In 60 departments, it even exceeds the alert threshold of 50 cases per 100,000 inhabitants.

Scientists hoped that the All Saints’ Day holidays would break this increase, as was the case last year. The reduction in contacts thus led to a decrease in contamination. But the “vacation” effect is more moderate this year. “We can fear, at the end of the school holidays (…), to see an increase and an even stronger restart of this epidemic”, warns Pascal Crépey, epidemiologist at the Rennes School of Public Health Studies (Ille-et-Vilaine). Until then relatively stable, hospitalizations are also on the rise: admissions have increased by 10% in one week. A figure nevertheless very far from the epidemic peaks that we have known, vaccination serving as a shield. In addition to the recalcitrant, the health authorities also target the unvaccinated over 65s.

Number of cases – CovidTracker, Public Health France

Incidence rate – Public Health France

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