The threshold of 150,000 deaths linked to Covid-19 was crossed on Friday July 8 in France, where the epidemic has been raging since the beginning of 2020, against a backdrop of a sharp increase in reinfections, according to figures from Public Health France.
With 74 people dead in hospital from the disease in 24 hours, the number of deaths exceeded 150,000. 140,000 cases had been counted on March 11, two years after the start of the pandemic in France.
France is in its seventh wave of the epidemic, which started at the end of May, pushed by subvariants of Omicron. It is reflected in a sharp increase in contamination, while the circulation of the virus continues to intensify on the territory and the date of the epidemic peak remains uncertain. Thursday evening there were thus more than 160,000 cases, with 17,719 hospitalized patients, including 1,523 new admissions.
Some 1,700 daily admissions planned
According to the latest projections published by the Institut Pasteur, hospitalizations linked to Covid will rise further in the coming days, the researchers expecting some 1,700 daily hospital admissions by July 18, against around a thousand these days.
Friday in its weekly update, Public Health France reported a sharp increase in Covid reinfections, which now reach 12% of confirmed cases. “The rise has been continuous since the arrival of the Omicron wave”commented Vincent Auvigne, SpF epidemiologist.
Wearing a mask recommended
Despite a high number of reinfections with a sub-variant of Omicron after a first infection with another sub-variant of Omicron (44% of cases), “the probability that a reinfection will actually occur after a first infection with another variant (Alpha, Delta or other)”“remains significantly higher”, underlines the agency. And “the further the first contamination is in time, the more the probability of reinfection will increase”said Vincent Auvigne.
The new Minister of Health, François Braun, spoke of the seventh wave of Covid at the time of the first departures on vacation, when wearing a mask is recommended, but not compulsory. “I ask the French for this day of great departure on vacation to put the mask on trains, on buses, in all places where we are a little on top of each other”, he insisted. All of the health restrictions were lifted in the spring, and the executive does not wish to put in place binding measures at this stage.