The eighth wave of Covid-19 continues to sweep through France. In its weekly report updated this Friday, October 7, Public Health France indicates that the circulation of the virus has progressed “strongly throughout the metropolitan territory, in particular among the oldest”, also indicating an increase in hospital admissions and death.

According to the latest data from CovidTracker, 61,121 new positive cases have been recorded, compared to 48,261 last week. The total number of hospitalized patients is 16,788, compared to 14,554 the previous week. The number of daily deaths rose from 29 to 42 in one week. This Saturday, October 8, the incidence rate – namely the number of positive cases reported to the population – is now 522 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. The effective R, meanwhile, is 1.36 which means the pandemic is progressing.

The worsening health situation is worrying. Are the return of certain restrictive measures to be expected? On this subject, Professor Brigitte Autran, president of Covars (Committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks) indicated that a possible return to wearing a compulsory mask was “under study”. “We are thinking about it, not thinking about it, but calculating what would be the benefits of wearing a mask compulsory compared to wearing a mask recommended”, she explained in Les 4 Vérités, Thursday October 6, on France 2. She notably encourages the wearing of a mask in “enclosed places when there is no social distancing, such as in transport”.

As a reminder, with the end of the state of health emergency on July 31, wearing a mask was no longer compulsory. On the other hand, “the heads of health establishments have the right to continue to impose the wearing of a mask inside buildings”, recalls Service-Public.fr, which explains that the wearing of a compulsory mask is still imposed in the hospitals, pharmacies, laboratories or medical practices. As for the possible return of the health pass and the gauges, the president of Covars affirmed that “it is not topical.

In our slideshow below, discover the 14 departments currently most affected by Covid-19, according to the latest data from CovidTracker: