The Covid-19 epidemic marked a "recovery" last week, with an increase in new contaminations and a slight increase in hospital admissions, a "worrying" development on the eve of the end-of-year vacation, warns Public Health France.
"We are really on an increase in the circulation of the virus, a resumption of the epidemic," said Sophie Vaux, epidemiologist at Public Health France, during an online press briefing this Friday.
And this recovery, even limited, "we consider it worrying" because it comes when France was already "at a worrying level in terms of new cases, hospital load, and that we are on the eve of two specific weeks. , which are weeks of leave, reunion, meetings, ”added Laëtitia Huiart, scientific director of the public health agency.
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The number of cases of contamination by the new coronavirus recorded a peak around 60,000 infections per day at the end of October, before dropping sharply thanks to the containment and the All Saints holidays.
But it has stabilized at a high level of around 12,000 new cases per day and has even started to increase again, shows the latest weekly epidemiological bulletin published by Public Health France.
No more screenings, but that does not explain everything
Last week, nearly 80,000 screening tests (PCR or antigen) were recorded, 10% more than the previous week.
The number of tests carried out has also increased, with a detection rate up 14%.
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But this increase is found both in asymptomatic people and in people with symptoms of Covid-19, which makes Sophie Vaux say that the increase in screening is not solely responsible for the growth in the number of cases detected, and that we are “on an increase in the circulation of the virus”.
On the hospital system side, the number of new admissions to the hospital and to intensive care units of patients diagnosed with Covid-19 positive, still down 9% and 16% respectively in the first week of December, started to rise again after last week.
8,608 new patients with Covid-19 were hospitalized (+ 2%) and 1,146 (+ 2% also) were admitted to intensive care during the week of December 7 to 13.
