The SARS-Cov2 virus is still circulating in a “sustained” way despite the shift in the curve of counted contaminations, Public Health France observed on Friday, unable to affirm “to date” that the peak of the epidemic rebound has passed.
Rebound peak reached?
The Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, said Thursday April 8 that “we have passed the peak of the rebound” of the Covid-19 epidemic. The number of new contaminations “has dropped by around 5% now for five days”, with 140,000 to 150,000 new cases recorded daily on average, he added.
Asked whether the peak of the rebound had been reached, the health agency estimated, during its weekly press briefing, that “we cannot answer in the affirmative to this question of having reached the peak of the rebound of epidemic to date.
“To know if we have reached the peak of the rebound of this epidemic recovery, we must have exceeded it and confirm that we are in a phase of decline in the epidemic”, underlined the agency.
Self-tests complicate the data
“Changes in incidence and screening rates will have to be interpreted with caution in the coming weeks, due to the increasingly frequent use of self-tests”, not counted “when they are not subject to confirmation by antigenic test or RT-PCR “, also warned Public Health France in a press release.
The circulation of the virus remains “sustained”, with, for example, a reproduction rate always greater than 1. , the trend is to be confirmed in the coming weeks”, according to the health agency.
An incidence rate that stabilizes
In mainland France, the incidence rate seemed to stabilize in Brittany, Grand-Est and Nouvelle-Aquitaine the week of March 28 to April 3, but increased further in the other regions. And “we are attentive in particular to the evolution of the dynamics of the epidemic among the oldest people”, whose hospitalization rate has increased, explained Public Health France during its press briefing.
The increase in the number of hospital admissions has not so far been reflected in the intensive care units, which treat the most serious forms of the disease and where the number of patients seems to have stabilized.
“In the current context of high circulation of SARS-CoV2 and influenza viruses as well as their impact on the healthcare system and on the hospital, the application of barrier gestures is essential”, reaffirmed the agency.
–
