The figure, which is approaching 90,000, shivers your back.
But does it perfectly match reality?
86,332 people died of Covid-19 on February 27, according to Public Health France.
More than two-thirds lost their lives in hospital, the others in nursing homes or in medico-social establishments (EMS).
A year ago to the day, the first Frenchman died in his country.
Twelve days earlier, a Chinese tourist had been the first to die in France after being infected with SARS-CoV-2.
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This dramatic toll for tens of millions of families does not, however, fully match the real number of patients who died from Covid-19, which is very complicated to estimate for the moment.
Here's why.
Because home deaths are not counted
As has been said, the cumulative number of deaths updated daily by the health authorities cumulates those recorded in the hospital and those in nursing homes and nursing homes, via two different information feedback systems (respectively SI-Vic and Voozanoo ).
Deaths at home are therefore not taken into account.
What proportion do they represent?
To find out, we have to look at the work of Inserm's Center for Epidemiology on the Medical Causes of Death (CépiDC).
This analyzes the death certificates it receives, by mail or by email.
“The advantage of this data collection is that we have all the deaths, but with a delay.
30% of the certificates are received by Internet, the other 70% by paper with three months late ”, indicates Grégoire Rey, director of CépiDC.
The latest consolidated data therefore dates from last fall.
As of October 31, Inserm listed 44,362 death certificates with a mention of Covid-19, meaning that this contributed to the death.
More than 35,000 of them are linked to a "confirmed" case, the others simply "suspect" (if the person has not tested positive but had symptoms that could suggest that he had been infected. , for example).
To arrive at this figure, an algorithm scans all the certificates looking for the different words entered by the certifying doctor.
As of the same date of October 31, Public Health France had recorded 36,764 deaths in hospital or nursing home, or about 8,000 less than the total (“suspected” or “confirmed” Covid) displayed on the CépiDC site.
This difference could be explained in particular by deaths outside healthcare establishments, but also by a delay in switching on the SI-Vic.
To know a first estimate of the balance sheet at the end of February, it will therefore be necessary to wait until the end of May at the earliest.
Inserm analysts will then look more finally at the share of deaths, which would be very majority, whose “initial cause” is the Covid.
Because all these deaths are not directly due to Covid-19
To return to the number of 86,332 deaths recorded on February 27, we must keep in mind that these people are not necessarily dead directly because of Covid-19.
In the hospital, we talk about “deceased Covid patients”, that is to say patients who lost their lives while carrying SARS-CoV-2.
A person operated on and then tested positive following the review of a cluster but when completely asymptomatic, for example, then integrates this assessment.
Questioned on this point by Le Parisien, Public Health France assures that a "very large majority" of patients infected with the virus and who died in hospital have indeed succumbed to Covid.
The agency discussed this subject with several health centers.
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In Ehpad, things are a little more complicated.
Because at the start of the pandemic, deceased residents were sometimes categorized as Covid deaths without having tested positive, but simply because they showed symptoms of the disease or even in case of suspicion.
"In an nursing home where I work, the first person to die had not tested positive but the clinical picture was so obvious that I wrote Covid on the certificate", says Renaud Marin La Meslée, president of the Union of general practitioners and geriatricians working in nursing homes (SNGIE).
He also thinks "that this led to an overestimation of Covid mortality at the start, because any person who died with a fever or breathing difficulties was qualified as Covid by the doctor".
Over the year as a whole, however, the figure seems to him to be "rather a good reflection of reality".
Because INSEE data does not allow us to know
When we think of demography and mortality, we may be tempted to turn to INSEE.
This is good since every Friday, the National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies updates the daily number of deaths from all causes in France.
667,400 people lost their lives last year, 53,900 more than in 2019.
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But beware: as this name indicates, it is about all the deaths, whatever the reason.
Suddenly, if this excess mortality from one year to the next can give an idea of the extent of the different waves of the epidemic in France, it is impossible to deduce the number of deaths due to Covid-19.
The flu epidemic was also not very virulent this winter, undoubtedly due to a good application of barrier gestures.
And other factors, such as heatwaves, can also come into play.
“The problem with deaths from all causes is that we mix everything up, the direct effects and the indirect effects of the Covid, etc.
But it remains an interesting way of trying to estimate excess mortality, while waiting to have consolidated and more complete statistics with the causes ”, concludes France Meslé, research director at the National Institute of Demographic Studies (INED) .
