Covid-19: hospitalizations, incidence rate ... the impressive decline in the epidemic in France in figures

Everything is shrinking… at least for the moment.

The various indicators of the Covid-19 epidemic in mainland France are in the green, while the next stage of reopening is due to begin on June 9.

The declines are sometimes impressive, which makes the Institut Pasteur say that the conditions are "favorable" to avoid a new wave of the epidemic this summer.

"The health situation continues to improve very significantly," said government spokesman Gabriel Attal on Wednesday.

Read alsoDecrease of the epidemic and vaccination: the "favorable" projections of the Pasteur Institute for this summer

Beware, however, since the spread and emergence of new variants could be a game-changer.

Without absolute certainty for the future in the coming weeks, let's take stock in a few figures.

Less than 20,000 hospitalized patients, including less than 3,500 in critical care

The change occurred on Saturday.

For the first time since October 27, less than 20,000 patients with Covid are hospitalized in France, a drop of 40% in one month.

In detail, the share of those in critical care (resuscitation, intensive care, continuous monitoring, etc.) fell sharply, from 6,000 to less than 3,500 over the period.

1,000 of them are taken care of in Île-de-France, a threshold that the region has not experienced since the beginning of March.

On the other hand, around 6,000 hospitalized patients are treated in follow-up and rehabilitation care or in long-term units, and this number remains stable.

This can be explained by the fact that people convalescing in these services, as the name suggests, stay there longer.

Daily admissions to the hospital divided by 4

The number of occupied beds is one thing, the number of daily admissions is another.

Here too, the improvement is clear.

550 patients are hospitalized every day, four times less than the peak reached a month and a half earlier.

Same story for daily critical care admissions, which went from 450 to 180 over the same period.

The drop is equally impressive for daily hospital deaths, from 300 to 110. Such a low number had not been reached since October 21, when the curve had soared.

No more departments above 200 for incidence.

This is undoubtedly one of the most scrutinized indicators on a daily basis.

The incidence rate, or the number of positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past week, has been divided by three in a month and a half, from more than 350 to less than 125.

In Île-de-France, the region most affected by this third wave, it fell from more than 600 to 170. Even more striking: no more metropolitan department is above 200 (Saint-Martin and Guyana remain beyond).

It should not be forgotten, however, that rates generally remain very high.

Only four departments are below 50, the alert threshold initially set last summer.

Read alsoA threshold of the incidence rate at 400 for deconfinement?

"Unacceptable", say epidemiologists

In addition, the number of cases recorded each day on average fell back below the 10,000 mark on Wednesday. But this number is slightly underestimated because it includes a public holiday (Whit Monday), during which the number of tests carried out is much lower than expected on weekdays.