“The pandemic is not over” and France is experiencing a new wave “associated with the Omicron BA.4 and BA.5 variant”assures the Scientific Council from the outset in its opinion of June 23, made public on July 5. And, “new epidemic waves of COVID-19 are to be expected.”
In effect, the number of Covid cases has started to rise again in France, with an incidence rate reaching 477/100,000 per week on June 21, “with a more pronounced recovery in Ile-de-France and in the western half of the country compared to the rest of the territory. All age groups are affected by this epidemic recovery, “with a slight predominance among those under 60”.
These figures are probably underestimated because of “a certain weariness with the declaration of the various actors” also estimates the CS, which is also worried about the increase in hospital admissions in critical care. And at a level almost identical to last year: 855 people in critical care on June 21, 2022 compared to 900 on the same date in 2021. And above all, the CS emphasizes again: “This epidemic resumption occurs in the context of the weakened hospital after more than two years of pandemic.”
The experts of the Scientific Council are nevertheless reassuring, in view of the wave which affected Portugal just before France and whose impact on hospitalizations and deaths was of the same order of magnitude as the BA.1 wave in January in France. .Even if they note a point of vigilance: a high mortality of the over 80s in Portugal, even though this country has one of the best vaccination coverages in the world.
Other waves, but better immunity
In the longer term, if the Scientific Council considers that we will know other waveshe estimates that our immunity should gradually improve. “The long-term hope lies in the constitution of an increasingly strong immunity against serious forms thanks to vaccine boosters and past infections, which will cause the individual and hospital impact of future epidemic waves to become less less noticeable.”
While waiting for “a more peaceful situation”, it is vigilance that prevails. So “it is desirable to keep devices allowing effective monitoring of the circulation of the virus and the securing of the places most at risk for the most fragile, while pursuing a dynamic vaccination policy which remains the most effective weapon to protect against severe forms of the infection.”
The Scientific Council therefore suggests a series of recommendations.
Barrier gestures
It is necessary to maintain these preventive actions with the most fragile, and in particular the carrying out of screening tests to allow the isolation of infected people, and the monitoring/care of fragile people.
Vaccination
The Scientific Council encourages the most vulnerable to take their booster dose (4th dose). “The proportion of people over 80 who have done it is only 22.2% on June 20, 2022. It is important to perform this booster as soon as possible, as well as for people who are severely immunocompromised or at very high risk of severe forms.”
Access to antiviral Paxlovid
People at risk of severe forms who are infected should have easier access to new treatments, including antivirals Paxlovid, “to avoid an impact on conventional hospitalization that is too great given the summer period and the context of a weakened hospital”.
Covid Bill
As a reminder, the end of the state of health emergency is intended for July 31, 2022. Also, the Scientific Council, seized by the Government on a bill providing for the maintenance of a monitoring and health safety system, recommends keep a device from August 1, 2022 until March 31, 2023in order to follow the evolution of the epidemic and to deal with a possible rebound during the fall or next winter, therefore to be able to react quickly.
The system adopted provides for:
- The preservation of information and epidemic monitoring systems (SI-DEP, Covid contact, etc.);
- The possibility of deploying health controls at borders through regulations depending on the health situation;
- The replacement of the COVID-19 Scientific Council (as of July 31) by a Committee for monitoring and anticipating health risks at the Ministry of Health.
Source :
- Opinion of the Scientific Council, June 23, 2022.
- French Public Health.
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