"The third wave is much less explosive than the previous ones, but every day we are called a little more", notes Serge Smadja.
The boss of SOS doctor is at the forefront.
He sees Covid patients pouring in and some switching to intensive care.
Breathless services in the most affected regions.
The record of November 16 is about to be exceeded: 4,872 patients were in intensive care this Sunday, against 4,903 at the peak this fall.
So much so that around forty AP-HP crisis medical directors (Assistance publique-Hôpitaux de Paris) now say they are preparing to have to “sort out patients”, as Karine Lacombe, chief of staff, announced to us on Wednesday. of the infectious diseases department in Saint-Antoine, in the 12th arrondissement of Paris.
"The number of people admitted to intensive care has increased slowly since mid-February and we are now close to the peak of the second wave in November", also notes the infectious disease specialist Stéphane Gayet at the Strasbourg University Hospital.
The Bas-Rhin is not, however, on the list of departments in enhanced vigilance.
A very heterogeneous situation
It is not so easy to see clearly in the table of indicators.
Some are stable while others deteriorate, in a very unequal health context from one territory to another.
"The situation is very heterogeneous", comments Jacques Battistoni, president of the union of general practitioners MG France.
When hospital activity remains completely normal in its department of Calvados, hospitals in Ile-de-France are indeed overwhelmed by an influx of patients in serious condition.
"For two weeks, we have felt a general tension that we had not experienced since the fall," says Yohan Saynac, general practitioner in Pantin (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Martin Blachier, epidemiologist and public health specialist, describes increases that are not spectacular, but whose magnitude ends up being significant.
"It's like a reservoir that would fill slowly but surely," he compares, with patients treated on average two to three days more in intensive care than in previous waves.
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The only clarification: for the moment, there is no significant increase in the number of deaths.
"The virus is more aggressive, but we have also adapted over the past year, with probably more effective patient care," said Julien Pottecher, head of the intensive care unit at Strasbourg University Hospital.
“What I see every day is that there are more and more young people infected.
But they continue to develop mild forms.
Personally, I have never seen serious forms in young people or children.
On the other hand, when we intervene for adults, they often tell us that their young had symptoms the previous week, ”reports Serge Smadja.
Parents of students hospitalized together
For the doctor, there is no urgent need to close the schools, on the other hand it is necessary "to be very careful to isolate the children when they are reached".
"Closing the class from the first case, as will be the case this Monday
(Editor's note: in the confined departments)
, seems to me a good measure", he comments.
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The question of middle school and high school students can be more sensitive, insists Martin Blachier, "because their parents are older and they seem to transmit the virus more.
I have been told of cases where parents of students in the same class find themselves hospitalized together.
"
VIDEO. Covid-19: "A single case in a class will lead to its closure, in the confined departments", announces Blanquer
Serge Smadja cites the case of a family where the girl tested positive for the South African variant.
Result: his two parents who had already been sick with Covid-19 were again infected.
The father, "a 33-year-old athletic man," had to be hospitalized one night, insists the doctor.
From the Grand-Est, Julien Pottecher is also worried about the acceleration of mutations of the virus and the consequences on the vaccination campaign.
“In recent weeks, we have seen an increase in the frequency of variants,” he says.
With us, at the Strasbourg hospital, we now find between 7 and 8 different categories of variants in the sequencing of the tests.
"
