With an incidence rate of 281 cases of coronavirus per 100,000 inhabitants, the city of Marseille holds the record for the highest rate in mainland France. According to the deputy director of ARS PACA, 40% of patients with Covid-19 end up in intensive care. Let’s take stock of the situation.
The highest incidence rate in France
While the city of Marseille has the highest incidence rate of Covid-19 in France (281 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), the agglomeration was placed on maximum alert last Wednesday. If the figures are down, however, they are still worrying.
Sébastien Debeaumont, deputy director of ARS PACA, said during an interview on Europe 1 last Saturday: “ At the end of last week, the evolution of the incidence rate was on hiatus, for the first time in weeks. However, the indicators remain very degraded, and well above the national average or that of the other affected territories. “.
Another observation: the coronavirus affects seniors more, as Sébastien Debeaumont clarified: “ Today, the increase in the incidence rate among older age groups is increasing week by week “. And it is they who are likely to trigger more serious forms. This is why hospitals fear more than ever that they will be saturated again in the coming weeks.
Hospitals under pressure
On September 25, Professor Marc Leone, head of the anesthesia and resuscitation service at the North Hospital was concerned about the rapid increase in hospitalizations relating to Covid-19. In an interview given on France Bleu Provence, he said: “ Perhaps we thought there was a stabilization and since Friday the number of cases has increased. There are 105 hospitalized cases (September 19) in intensive care in the Bouches-du-Rhône while only 300 intensive care beds are available. “.
According to the deputy director of ARS PACA: “ We can speak of a tense situation in hospitals. The number of patients is only growing every week “. To which he added: “40% of intensive care beds are now occupied by Covid patients “.
While the health authorities had set the alert threshold at 30%, Sébastien Debeaumont calls for solidarity: “ We must not oppose each other. Responsibility is collective and shared. […] We are going to live sustainably with the Covid, that is not why we should not live. But we have to adapt to this threat “. For this, he wished to recall the importance of barrier gestures: “ The best way to do this is to scrupulously respect barrier gestures, in the public sphere as in the private sphere. “.
