You may be on vacation, but the Covid doesn’t take it. He is once again being talked about in the heart of summer in France as in other countries. Indeed, specialists note an epidemic rebound, certainly moderate but which calls for vigilance.
Coming out of the majority of minds after more than three years of pandemic and several waves, the SARS-Cov-2 virus was recently remembered by some French people, especially in the wake of the Bayonne celebrations. And more broadly, in “highly frequented holiday regions”, as indicated by Santé Publique France, in its last point.
A very moderate epidemic rebound
Indeed, the few indicators still in place confirm an epidemic recovery. In the emergency room, visits for suspicion of Covid increased by 31% the week from July 31 to August 6 compared to the previous one, concerning 920 patients, according to Public Health France. On the SOS Médecins side, medical acts for suspected Covid-19 jumped 84% in one week, to more than 1,500 acts in early August, according to SpF.
Probable illustration of the effect of the Bayonne celebrations, the increase in incidence in mainland France is “located in particular in the south-west and carried mainly by New Aquitaine”, noted the Directorate General of Health.
The latest SPF bulletin, dated August 9, notes that the regions most affected by emergency visits for suspicion of Covid are the Pays de la Loire and Normandy. The PACA region has seen its visits to emergencies increase by 33%, but the figures remain very low, with an increase of 36 visits.
“The circulation of the Covid is certainly low in France but we must remain vigilant, because the situation is changing rapidly”, judged the Minister of Health, in a statement sent to AFP. “We will have to live with the resurgence of this virus for several more seasons”added Aurélien Rousseau.
A “moderate” but global rebound
And in this period of annual holidays, the rebound is also visible in the United States but also in the United Kingdom, India or Japan. The number of new cases recorded worldwide jumped 80% over one month, with 1.5 million additional contaminations from July 10 to August 6, the World Health Organization said on Friday.
If, since the beginning of May, the WHO no longer considers the pandemic a global health emergency, “the virus continues to circulate in all countries, continues to kill and continues to change”, underlined its director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday.
Its EG.5 version, nicknamed Eris by some scientists, is currently the most scrutinized because it could carry the rebound. Summer gatherings and lower immunity can also play a role.
Eris’ fault?
This sub-variant of the Omicron family, member of the XBB lineage, seems more transmissible than others in circulation -probably under the effect of new genetic mutations-, and perhaps more capable of escaping immune defences. More than 17% of Covid cases identified worldwide in mid-July fell under EG.5 (+7.6% over one month), according to the WHO. “It has been identified in India, but also in other Asian countries, in North America, in Europe, where it tends to supplant the previous dominant strains. This variant is not reported, where it is past, cause specific symptoms or particular virulence”told AFP Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Geneva.
Until then, “the available evidence does not suggest that EG.5 poses additional public health risks relative to other circulating Omicron progeny lines”, according to the WHO. But “the risk remains that a more dangerous variant will emerge and cause a sudden increase in cases and deaths”Dr. Tedros recalled.
Monitoring epidemic oscillations is however more complicated, due to a lack of data since the drop in the number of tests, sequencing and the stopping of monitoring devices. “The fog is thick on the epidemiological situation all over the world. It is urgent that the health authorities reinstate a reliable Covid health monitoring system”according to Antoine Flahaut.
In France, the General Directorate of Health assured that “the health authorities have not let their guard down” more “adapted” monitoring because “Covid is now one of the viral acute respiratory infections, alongside influenza and RSV”, causing bronchiolitis. Over time and waves, the impact of Covid on hospitalizations and deaths has greatly diminished, thanks to the high level of immunity acquired by vaccination and/or infections.