With 74,618 new cases of Covid confirmed in week 51, the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region has set a new record in the Covid epidemic. Already, the number of new cases of this 5e wave exceeds the number of cases recorded during the 2e vague, underlines Public Health France (SpF) in its weekly bulletin of December 30. This 2e wave had been the most virulent in the region, AURA even being the “epicenter” of this wave.
The 20-29 are the most affected
Between weeks 50 and 51, the incidence rate increased by 36%. It continues to fly away in stratospheric spheres with 1,314 cases / 100,000 inhabitants over the last 7 days. The most affected departments are Savoie (2,000/100,000) and Haute-Savoie (1,900/100,000) followed by the Rhône (1,354/100,000). The first week of the school holidays was marked by an explosion of contaminations in the Alpine departments (+ 84% in Savoie and + 48% in Haute-Savoie) but also in the Rhône (+ 50%) and Cantal (+ 107% ). The 20-29 year old age group is currently the most affected with an incidence rate of over 1,800 / 100,000, an increase of + 86%.
643 Covid + patients in the Rhône
Fortunately, hospitalizations are not increasing at the same rate thanks to vaccination and probably also to a lower virulence of the Omicron variant. While the number of emergency room visits for Covid has increased by + 20% between W50 and W51 in the region, the proportion of visits followed by hospitalization has been falling for 4 weeks (44% in W51). In the Rhône, 643 Covid + patients were hospitalized on December 31, including 165 in intensive care. Between the two New Years Eve, 448 new patients were admitted to hospital including 106 in intensive care. The situation remains tense and the month of January promises to be high risk in hospitals and clinics as the bronchiolitis epidemic is still present – but in a waning phase – and the flu epidemic is looming, the region being in pre-epidemic phase for two weeks.
With the outbreak of the epidemic, all-cause mortality also rose above the alert threshold to a moderate level for W47, W48 and W50 and even to a high level for W49. After a sharp increase of 3 weeks, the death rate in hospital of Covid + patients aged 80 and over seems to decrease in W51 while that of 60-79 years has increased slightly for 5 weeks. As of December 31, the number of patients who died from Covid in hospital stood at 3,562 in the Rhône, to which must be added 1,025 deaths in nursing homes (as of 12/14/2021).