Almost every day, his new threshold is crossed.
After the 20,000 daily Covid cases on average this week, the incidence rate (number of positives per 100,000 inhabitants over the past week) exceeds the threshold of 200 on Thursday (212.9 precisely).
This is the first time since August 24 that a level so high has been reached - the peak of the “fourth wave” was 250 in mid-August.
In one week, the incidence has just climbed by 60%.
It reaches more than 350 in children aged 6 to 10, in particular.
This crossing of the threshold of 200 (all ages combined) is not only symbolic since it will have at least one very concrete consequence: the sanitary pass will now be imposed in ski resorts to use the ski lifts.
This is what Jean Castex announced on November 6.
Note that the incidence rate already exceeds 200 in a large third of the departments, mainly located in the southern half of the country.
More than 1,000 hospitalizations per day?
The big question will now be to know what impact this "outbreak" of contamination will have on the hospital.
Inevitably, the number of admissions of seriously ill patients, already up 40% in one week (more than 500 per day), will continue to climb.
Professor Arnaud Fontanet, epidemiologist at the Institut Pasteur, estimates that "the wave will probably exceed 1,000 hospitalizations per day", as he indicated to the Parisian.
At the end of August, the curve had climbed to nearly 900. But the climatic conditions were less favorable to the circulation of the virus, since it was easier to ventilate and to be outdoors than in the middle of winter.
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The extent of this fifth wave at the hospital will depend in particular on the booster vaccinations, now extended to the entire population.
Currently, nearly 6 million inhabitants, including nearly 5 million aged 65 or over, have received an additional injection in France.
