" People over 70, and fragile people " must be protected as a priority, said Emmanuel Macron in his speech this Thursday evening. But how many are there?
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According to the demographic balance sheet of INSEE, published on January 14, 10.4 million people were aged 70 or over, out of a total population of 65 million, or 16% of the French. Within this group, 7.5 million are over the age of 80 (11.4% of the total population).
Another category considered " fragile " (and which can of course include the elderly), the French suffering from various chronic diseases. Among them, cardiovascular diseases, such as diabetes (3.3 million people), hypertension (15 million people), or excess cholesterol (10 million people). Also those affected by chronic respiratory diseases, and in particular chronic obstructive pulmonary disease which affects " probably more than 3.5 million people " according to Santé Respiratoire France. Finally, cancer affects around 385,000 to 400,000 new people each year in France. Finally, according to sources, 6.5 to 8 million French people are considered obese. These " comorbidity " factors negatively affect their resistance to Covid-19.
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In general, the National Health Insurance Fund (CNAM), revealed in 2017 that 20 million French people had used care related to the management of a chronic pathology, or 35% of 57.6 million beneficiaries of the general scheme.