Spring is finally arriving throughout France and many departments will see clear skies appear for the week of April 17, 2023. However, it also signals the return of an increase in the pollen rate, but above all an increase in cases. Covid-19 positives. Indeed, the Public Health France site, managed by the Ministry of Health, regularly presents epidemiological points. The last bulletin of April 13 does not bode well.
The Santé Publique France site only records nine waves of Covid-19 epidemics at the moment. If the latter now seems to have become a classic virus, like the flu, we are not immune to a new wave. To prevent and not relive the situation of the start of the 2022 school year, the Minister of Health, François Braun, created last September the Committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks (COVARS). Indeed, after the triple epidemic of bronchiolitis, influenza and Covid-19, François Braun approached the creation of this committee as a “crucial new weapon”.
On March 31, 2023, COVARS then published a news note on the evolution of the virus in the Official Journal. It would seem that the virus is “in an endemo-epidemic phase with rebounds of lower amplitude with less violent health impact than the previous ones”. Nevertheless, the latter “still circulates at a rate and frequency which show that it has not become a” seasonal respiratory virus “like another (influenza virus, bronchiolitis virus, etc.)”. Then discover in our slideshow below the departments where the Covid-19 circulates the most.
For the Committee, we therefore still cannot speak of a banal virus because of the increased risk of new epidemic waves linked to Covid-19. The report reveals that the positivity rate increased by nearly 3 points between March 24 and 31, 2023. Thus, the Committee sends some instructions to all French people. Members recall that vaccination is still important and that a first booster in the spring of 2023 for people at high risk of severe form and infants has been announced. A second booster in the fall of 2023 will be possible for people at risk of a serious form.
For people who are not at risk, it is still necessary to wear the mask indoors in case of sudden difficulty breathing. Finally, it is recommended to ventilate the interior rooms in “private housing, in offices, places of collective catering, etc”.
Consult our slideshow below to find out if you are affected by these instructions in your department. The data takes into account the evolution of the incidence rate, that is to say the evolution of the number of cases, over the week of March 24 to 31, 2023.
