For Bruno Megarbane, head of the intensive care unit at the Lariboisière hospital in Paris, this increase is even “very below reality”, because we test ourselves much less.
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The Covid epidemic is on the rise again in France. New daily contaminations exceeded 55,000 cases at the start of the week according to health authorities, 40,000 again on Thursday June 9, according to the latest available data. A rebound attributed to the reduction in barrier gestures and the appearance of “BA4 and BA5 sub-variants from Portugal”explains on franceinfo Professor Bruno Megarbane, head of the medical and toxicological resuscitation service at the Lariboisière hospital in Paris.
“We still have a 25% increase in new cases of contamination compared to last week”underlines the expert, specifying that the effective R indicator (the rate of reproduction of the virus) is now “greater than 1, showing that we are returning to a progression phase of the epidemic”. For him, we are even “very clearly below reality”the French having less recourse to screening tests against Covid.
The rebound for the moment is not seen in the hospital, “even if the drop in new admissions to hospitalization and intensive care tends to be reduced”underlines Professor Megarbane who recalls that there is a “a fortnight’s lag between the rebound in contamination and that of possible hospitalizations”.
“With the repetition of the waves, collective immunity is now very solid with 80% of the population who are vaccinated and half who had to meet Omicron in the previous months. This constitutes an important bulwark to avoid serious forms.”
Bruno Megarbaneat franceinfo
On the other hand, the number of reinfections is on the rise. “Even if the symptoms are minor for the vast majority of the population, beware of the elderly, immunocompromised people, who have cancers or comorbidities”warns the hammering doctor that the second booster dose is strongly recommended.
Summer being not conducive to the spread of the virus, the doctor wants to be more cautious for the start of the school year. “That’s where we’ll see if the acquired immunity will make it possible to get through the winter” or whether a new booster dose for the general population should be considered. “The virus will not disappear, we will have to live with it and from time to time boost immunity, especially for those most at risk”concludes the expert.