the departments with the most hospital admissions

The epidemic rebound is growing in France. The number of people testing positive for Covid-19 continues to increase. Over the past seven days, there have been an average of 128,241 new cases each day, compared to 89,735 seven days earlier, according to the latest figures from Public Health France.

As a reminder, the incidence rate corresponds to the number of cases per 100,000 inhabitants. This is the main indicator on which the authorities have relied since the start of the pandemic to establish the restrictions.

From now on, it is the BA.2 variant which is the majority in France. This is a sub-variant d’Omicron. “The BA.2 sub-lineage is today the majority in France. The progression of BA.2 to the detriment of BA.1 is observed throughout the metropolitan territory, but at different levels depending on the region”, adds Santé Publique France.

Variant BA.2: more contagious, but not more serious

Nicknamed “Stealth Omicron”BA.2 would be harder to spot. To understand, you have to know that it presents a twenty additional mutations, in particular at the level of the Spike protein (the one used by the virus to bind to cells). The mutations which distinguish the Spike protein of BA.1 from that of BA.2 play an important role in PCR testing protocols. Even if these variations do not prevent finding the virusthis one completely escapes the “SGTF” strategy allowing to detect the variant via PCR tests.

In view of the latest scientific studies, BA.2 would be more contagious and would involve significant risks of recontamination. The good news is that “the subvariant ofOmicron BA2 does not cause a more severe form of the covid that BA1 [souche originelle Omicron, ndlr]“assured Maria Van Kerkhove, technical manager of the WHO. A priori, there is no “difference in terms of severity between BA1 and BA2 and therefore a similar level of severity in terms of risk of hospitalization”.

According to the Covid-19 tracking application, Covid Tracker, hospital admissions are however on the rise again in some departments. We review the areas with the highest admissions this week.

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