They should soon live on time in Paris and eight other metropolises. Several cities should switch this Thursday to “maximum alert” against Covid-19. With the key, a curfew. Clermont-Ferrand, Tours, and even Dijon are suspended.
The incidence rate, a key indicator which records the number of positive people over seven days per 100,000 inhabitants, is indeed on the rise in these cities. To switch to “maximum alert”, two other criteria must also be exceeded: 100 cases in 100,000 in people over 65 and 30% of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units.
Even if the maximum alert threshold does not rhyme with curfew, Aix-Marseille, Grenoble, Lille, Lyon, Montpellier, Saint-Etienne, Toulouse and Ile-de-France, have already reached this threshold and have suffered for six days a curfew, with Rouen, remained on heightened alert.
Which cities could follow the same path? According to data from Public Health France, the incidence rate for the general population and for the elderly has been greatly exceeded at Clermont-Ferrand, where it reached 342 per 100,000 inhabitants and 386 respectively. By way of comparison, in Saint-Etienne, the incidence rate of over 65s reached 740.1 and 807 for the population of all ages.
In Strasbourg, an incidence rate that doubles
These two criteria are also exceeded at Dijon. AT Orléans, the city is close to the maximum alert threshold with 243 cases per 100,000 people in the total population, and 148 in people over 65. Also in the sights of health authorities, Tours, where the indicator for the elderly is exceeded, with 127 cases. But not yet for the general population.
Ditto for in the Eurometropolis of Strasbourg, where the incidence rate “doubles every week,” notes the Greater East Regional Health Agency, dangerously approaching the maximum alert threshold. With an incidence rate of 207 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the latest data, Nantes strong risk of joining the curfew system.
What about the last indicator, the occupation of intensive care beds by Covid-19 patients? The figures available relate to the regions. In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, where the Regional Health Authority on Friday asked “all public and private health establishments” in three sectors of the region to deprogram certain operations, the situation is critical. Currently, 60% of the beds are occupied by patients sick with Covid-19.
