Some departments are going green.
In 9% of them, especially located in the South West, the transmission of Covid-19 declined in the week of December 3 to 10.
Lot-et-Garonne, Landes, Pyrénées-Atlantiques and Hautes-Pyrénées are concerned.
However, "departmental fluctuations are difficult to interpret because they depend on many factors: situation of risky contacts, vaccination, screening, various policies to encourage screening or vaccination according to age groups, etc." Grand-Est Regional Health Agency (ARS).
A very relative lull
Also, certain reductions in incidence should be taken with a grain of salt.
The incidence is the number of positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants over the past week.
In Finistère, it fell by 1.7% between December 3 and 10.
However, according to the ARS of Brittany, this could be explained by the screening activity, "which has experienced less growth than in the other departments".
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And, in the majority of departments, the Covid-19 curve continues to rise.
Paris, Rhône, Bouches-du-Rhône or even Gironde….
Between December 3 and 10, the territories where economic activity is the most dynamic recorded increases in incidence of more than 10%.
In Aude, Vaucluse, Mayenne, Gard, Lozère and Southern Corsica, it even exceeds 40%.
Noticeable reflux in the elderly
The noose loosens for seniors.
After a strong rise in the virus in November, its transmission among those over 60 has been declining since December 8.
The incidence of people in their seventies even fell by 4% between December 8 and 10.
Today it is less than 350, or even around 150 for octogenarians.
Among those under 60, the number of contaminations is increasing, but at a slower pace since the beginning of December.
Example with the incidence of children for whom contamination had exploded in November.
Today it is the one that has slowed down the most.
Since December 9, it has only increased by 20% over a week, against more than 70% in the second half of November.
That of the 20 to 40 age group is also growing less rapidly than in November.
Between the same two periods, it fell from around 40% increase over a week to less than 20% on December 10.
The fear, already, of a sixth wave
These signs of a lull are far from ending the Covid-19 storm, however. The incidence reached almost 500 on December 10. This is slightly more than in the fall of 2020, a wave where the most positive cases were recorded. At the time, however, half the PCR and antigens were performed, and fewer Covid-19 positives were detected.
Many hospitals are triggering "white plans", and hospitalizations and critical care admissions now exceed those of this summer, although they remain well below those of the first three waves.
The scientific council wrote in its opinion of December 8 that without a drop in Covid-19 contamination, admissions were still doomed to increase, "with a peak which could be greater than 2,000 per day".
A level close to that observed in the fall of 2020.
This is without counting the arrival of a new variant, Omicron, which, according to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, could be dominant in Europe by mid-January.
In France, new measures will be announced "at the end of this week" in anticipation of the holidays, the government spokesman announced.