To the question "will the second wave be worse than the first?"
“, The answer is already yes in part of the country.
32 departments counted this Monday at least 20% of hospitalized patients more than the peak reached in spring, generally at the beginning of April.
In nine of them, the number of beds occupied in intensive care is also at least 20% higher than in the first wave.
READ ALSO>
Covid-19: contaminations, resuscitation, death ... is the “second wave” worse than the first?
These territories are mainly located in a large south-eastern quarter of the country.
Several of them had already been severely affected at the time, and the situation there became even more critical.
This is particularly the case in Gard (+ 51% of patients in intensive care) and in Isère (+ 38%).
"A second wave without comparison with the first"
“We have a gradual increase in the number of occupied beds with a big jump every two weeks or so.
The last weekend, we brought in 60 Covid-19 patients including 20 in intensive care, ”testifies Jean Emmanuel de la Coussaye, head of emergency medicine and crisis medical director at the Nîmes University Hospital.
"We are experiencing a second wave out of all proportion to what the first was", alarmed LREM deputy from Gard Philippe Berta, also a geneticist.
In this department of the Occitanie region, 65 patients are in intensive care.
This is 22 more than the maximum reached during the first wave on April 7 (43).
Proof that the situation has been reversed: last Monday and Tuesday, 10 patients were transferred from the Nîmes CHU to hospitals in Toulouse and Brest.
In April, the city of Gard had on the contrary taken care of patients arriving from the Grand Est.
What strikes Jean Emmanuel de la Coussaye is also the average age of the patients, which has fallen compared to six months ago.
“In the beginning, we had to intubate them all and put them on artificial ventilation.
There, their profile has changed and they are getting younger and younger.
We have a lot of young adults between 35 and 55 years old, ”he says, adding that his teams are now“ better trained to take care of these Covid patients ”.
PODCAST. Covid-19: how France sees the arrival of the "second wave", our reporter tells
Doctors and local elected officials blame a sort of lack of public attention.
“Since the end of August, I have been trying to make myself heard to warn that the virus would quickly recirculate, but I have the feeling that I have preached in the desert.
We were treated to a big fair, parties… Until a week ago, there was a lack of awareness of people, ”explains Philippe Berta.
In March, "we confined the country and everything stopped"
Same feeling a few hundred kilometers away, in Isère.
118 patients in serious condition are treated there on November 1, against 66 at most in the spring.
Concerns are particularly focused on Grenoble, which has the fourth highest incidence rate among large cities.
Newsletter - Most of the news
Every morning, the news seen by Le Parisien
I'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers.
Learn more
“In the Grenoble metropolis, people are more aware of the situation.
But in my more rural territory in the north of the department, they still believe they are protected even though nursing homes, which had absolutely not experienced the first wave, now have more than thirty cases.
In one of them, more than half of caregivers are even contaminated, ”says Cendra Motin, LREM member of Isère.
Some of these departments, which show a sharp increase in the number of intensive care patients, had been rather spared by the first wave.
It is therefore not surprising that they have already passed their peak.
Lozère, for example, shows a 100% increase in blood pressure in intensive care since it has gone ... from 2 to 4 serious cases.
READ ALSO>
Covid-19: the rebound of the epidemic seen from the "white areas"
"In many places, in March, the virus was not yet circulating much and the country was confined so everything stopped", notes epidemiologist Carole Dufouil, research director at Inserm.
And Cendra Motin concludes: "The first confinement, we respected it and some had nothing.
Maybe people say to themselves that if they respect the second a little less well, it will be fine anyway ”.
At the risk of a second wave even more serious than the first.
