The imminent end of the obligation to wear a mask, in transport as in all places not subject to the health pass, illustrates a marked improvement in the health situation.
Because even if it is largely dominant, the Omicron variant causes less serious forms of the disease, which translates into shorter stays in hospital and a lower risk of going to intensive care.
This Friday, French hospitals are welcoming 29,194 positive coronavirus patients, slightly less than Thursday (29,843).
Seven days ago, Public Health France counted 31,939. In addition, 1,795 new patients diagnosed positive for Covid-19 have been admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours.
They were 1,882 the day before and 2,377 last Friday.
Another notable positive sign, 92,345 cases have been diagnosed in France.
That's a 40% drop in one week.
And the positivity rate has also been falling for more than two weeks.
The incidence rate but also the positivity rate therefore continue to decrease significantly, while still remaining at levels above all previous peaks.
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— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) February 18, 2022
The most serious cases, treated in critical care services, are decreasing with 2,970 patients this Friday evening.
They were 3,055 yesterday and 3,371 last Friday.
France has thus fallen below the symbolic bar of 3,000 patients in intensive care, for the first time since December 19, while Olivier Véran conditioned the total end of the obligation to wear a mask to the number of patients in intensive care, namely less than 2,000. In the past 24 hours, these units reserved for severe forms have identified 196 new entries, against 245 seven days earlier.
Daily deaths fell 9% in one week.
Public Health France has recorded 273 deaths linked to Covid-19 in the past 24 hours.
Since the start of the pandemic, 136,010 coronavirus-positive people have died.
Since the start of the vaccination campaign in France, 54,171,290 people have received at least one injection (i.e. 80.3% of the total population) and 53,124,245 people now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 78.8% of the total population).
In addition, 38,413,463 people received a booster dose.
In the past 24 hours, 155,786 doses of Covid-19 vaccine have been administered.
