In its weekly point on Friday, the health agency noted that “109 outbreaks of the epidemic (excluding nursing homes and restricted family environment) have been reported: 104 in metropolitan France and 5 in the overseas regions.” More broadly, there are “no signals for a resumption of the epidemic”. “No community dissemination (occurrence of new cases outside the community and in connection with the cluster) not controlled is reported,” according to Public Health France.
In one in five cases, the outbreak is controlled (no new case 7 days after the last) or even extinguished (no new case within 14 days). During the previous update on May 21, the number of outbreaks stood at 46.
Better tracking capacity
However, health officials have repeatedly said that an increase is not bad news in itself, but rather reflects better tracking ability. Provided these outbreaks are controlled by isolating the positive cases. Among these 109 households, “64% have more than 5 cases”.
“They concern in particular people in precarious and vulnerable situations (19% in social accommodation and integration establishments, and 6% in vulnerable communities), health establishments (22%) and more generally businesses (20 % private and public companies) “, specifies the health agency. Furthermore, it considers that “149,071 cases of Covid-19 have been confirmed in France” between January 21 and May 28.
This number comes from new more “exhaustive” estimates thanks to “the transmission of data from patients tested in city laboratories and in hospital laboratories” (a system called SI-DEP). For the week of May 18-24, “216,891 patients were tested” at Covid-19 and 4,119 were positive (1.9%).
Epidemiological indicators of the virus on the decline
The positive rate of virological tests (which allow you to know if you are infected when you do them) is important for early detection of a possible resumption of the epidemic. Public Health France underlines that “for more than 7 weeks, the epidemiological indicators of circulation of SARS-CoV-2 have been falling or have remained at low levels in mainland France”.
Among these indicators (death, hospitalization, entry into intensive care, etc.), “the proportion of new cases (…) among residents in nursing homes has decreased over the last 14 days compared to the previous 14 days”.
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