The Covid-19 continues to bereave many families, because unfortunately there are still 260 deaths per day on average in hospital. In several regions, this hospital mortality seems to be reaching a plateau. This is particularly the case in Île-de-France, Hauts-de-France, Brittany, or Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
But on average indeed, at the national level, these mortality figures remain on the rise with + 7% of deaths in one week in France. We are not an isolated case in Europe because mortality also continues to increase in Italy, Spain and Denmark. It stagnates in the UK. This is a sign that the Omicron wave is not quite behind us yet.
According to data from thea Department of Research, Studies, Evaluation, and Statistics of the Ministry of Health (Drees), half of these deaths occur in patients infected with Delta (and who had therefore been in intensive care for several weeks). The other half occurs in patients contaminated with Omicron. Patients who, in this case, are generally rather old, suffer from comorbidities, and who are not always up to date with their vaccine or boosters.
Their profile resembles that of patients who usually succumb to the flu, explains Doctor Benjamin Davido, infectious disease specialist at the Poincaré hospital in Garches, because even if Omicron causes fewer symptoms, it remains dangerous for the most fragile. With Omicron, according to the Dress, an unvaccinated person aged 80 or over has a one-in-five chance of ending up in hospital.
Doctors estimate that there is a two to three week lag between the decline in intensive care admissions and the decline in mortality. According to the president of the Scientific Council Jean-François Delfraissy, the epidemic could “to land” around mid-March. We can therefore imagine a trough in the wave of mortality towards the end of March, beginning of April. Provided that no aggressive variant emerges by then.
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