After several weeks of calm marked by a significant easing of restrictions, it seems that the Covid-19 epidemic is spreading again in France.
According to Public Health France, there were 79,397 new cases on June 12, 2022, an increase of 286% in seven days.
The national incidence rate, meanwhile, stands at 336.4 cases per 100,000 inhabitants. If we rely on the calculation of the effective R, a contaminated person in turn contaminates 1.1. This is beyond the alert threshold set at 1: the epidemic is therefore indeed gaining ground, and we could witness the beginnings of a new wave which could prove to be formidable.
If, for the time being, the rebound does not yet jeopardize the hospital, the fact remains that the sudden increase in the number of cases is worrying.
This would be due, on the one hand, to the relaxation of barrier gestures, but also to the great virality of the sub-variants of Omicron, BA.4 and BA.5, which seem to be increasingly present in the sequencing carried out on the territory.
4th dose of vaccine, return of the mask and the vaccine pass… Faced with soaring figures, some fear a backpedal in terms of health protocol.
The transitional period for exiting the state of emergency, which allows the government to introduce exceptional measures, is however set for July 31.
“We are vigilant, but not worried”, assured the spokesperson for the executive Olivia Grégoire, after the council of ministers on Wednesday June 8. A new bill aimed at defining the strategy for combating the coronavirus in the coming months will, however, be presented to parliamentarians on June 22. It is not known, for the moment, if there will be any mention of a possible return of the restrictions.
In the meantime, the new wave already seems to be gaining ground in these 18 departments, where the positivity rate is exploding: at least one in six people tested is now positive*. Discover the list of areas concerned in our slideshow.
*according to CovidTracker data on June 13, 2022.
