This end of March 2023 marks 3 years since the start of the first confinement linked to the Covid-19 pandemic in France. 9 epidemic waves later, the situation seems to have calmed down, and we could almost forget the existence of the virus if we believe the almost total absence of masks on the faces of the French and distancing measures lately. . However, even though nearly 53 million French people have been vaccinated, the virus is still circulating in France.
Antoine Flahaut, director of the Institute of Global Health in Geneva, confided in our colleagues from around the world. According to him, the circulation of the virus would still be as topical, as would the serious forms, the symptoms of long Covid and the hospitalizations it involves. However, the immunity resulting from the many waves experienced by France in particular changes the facts of the problem. Indeed, hospitals and their intensive care units are no longer saturated.
We cannot yet speak of the end of the epidemic, even if the situation has largely stabilized. Indeed, Public Health France reports that incidence rates have stabilized and there is a slight drop in hospitalizations. In February, there were less than 300 new ones.
Unfortunately, the virus still kills. In France, between 20 and 30 people a day still die from Covid. The majority of these deaths occur in hospital, and affect men more than women: they constitute 58% of these deaths. The circulation of the virus remains relatively territorialized. Thus, there are departments in which the incidence rate is particularly low. Find their ranking below, according to CovidTracker.
