This Thursday, January 28, the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, took the floor to take stock of the health situation relating to the Covid-19 epidemic and its variants. Curfew, increased hospital pressure and circulation of new variants… Let’s take stock.
The effectiveness of the curfew is fading
If the Minister of Health declared that there was “a real effect” of the curfew in the departments which put it in place at 6 p.m. at the beginning of January, Olivier Véran still recognizes that ” its effectiveness fades “And that this measure” not enough to roll back the virus “. He thus indicated: ” we are on a rising plateau […] with twenty thousand cases diagnosed every day ”, which represents an increase in the figures of 10% on average every week “.
Increase in hospital pressure and interregional transfers
To justify his remarks, the Minister of Health took stock of the hospital situation. According to him, ” the hospital pressure increases again. […] In the past two weeks, there are now more severe cases in the hospital than people who can be discharged “. In terms of numbers, he said that 250 patients are currently admitted to intensive care each day.
Comparing the situation to that of the second confinement which took place last fall, with 3,100 Covid-19 patients in intensive care at the end of January against “ 3,300 or 3,400 “In October, he said hospitals are” almost 60% occupancy »Resuscitation beds for patients with Covid-19. ” Today we are almost at the level of resuscitation in October. The big difference is that the dynamics are not exponential, it is true, but again the number of resuscitations is increasing, it is factual »He clarified. Faced with this observation, the Minister of Health indicated that ” we are not very far from once again considering making the first interregional patient transfers to relieve certain regions “.
More than 2,000 new patients per day with variants
Regarding the circulation of Covid-19 variants, Olivier Véran fears ” a very strong epidemic wave, even stronger than the previous ones “. According to him, “ it is estimated to have gone from around 500 patients per day with these variants at the beginning of January – this is higher than we expected – to more than 2,000 patients per day “. If he evokes ” an epidemic within the epidemic “, the Minister of Health nevertheless wished to reassure the French by recalling that” all scientists and laboratories remain confident about the effectiveness of vaccines “.
