No Christmas truce for the virus. The variant “Omicron will be in the majority in France between Christmas and New Year”, said Wednesday, December 22, the Minister of Solidarity and Health Olivier Véran. According to the latest data from Public Health France, at least 1,038 cases of infection with this strain of the coronavirus have been confirmed by sequencing. But this number is certainly and largely underestimated, the Hexagon being less at the forefront of technology than Denmark in this field. What is certain, however, is that the plateau that epidemiologists were beginning to foresee for the end of the year celebrations could well slip through our fingers.
First, because we have again broken the record for new cases identified in 24 hours: 84,272 Sars-CoV-2 infections according to the latest data from Public Health France, updated Wednesday, December 22. But also because the incidence rate is soaring in places. Particularly in Île-de-France: in Paris, the national public health body identified 998.5 contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants between December 12 and 19. A rate up 51.1% compared to the previous week, when it stood at 660.8 / 100,000. However, the indicator had only increased by 8.9% a week earlier.
This development is probably linked to Omicron, which would spread very quickly in the Paris region. Tuesday, December 21, government spokesman Gabriel Attal indicated that in Paris, “more than one in three contamination seems to be linked to the Omicron variant”. At the microphone of BFMTV this Thursday morning, the mayor of the capital, Anne Hidalgo, affirmed that “one inhabitant in 100 has Covid-19” at the moment in Paris. The impact of Omicron is also felt, but to a lesser extent, in the inner suburbs: 730.8 new positive cases for Sars-CoV-2 per 100,000 inhabitants between December 12 and 19 in the Hauts-de-Seine . That is to say an incidence rate up 36.8% compared to the previous week. In Val-de-Marne, the indicator increased by 29% to stand at 664.7 contaminations per 100,000. The virus is also circulating faster in Seine-et-Marne: the incidence rate has increased by 30.7% to reach 583.9 new cases per 100,000 inhabitants.
Outside Île-de-France, the epidemic situation is also deteriorating in Auvergne. Particularly in Puy-de-Dôme: despite a certain slowdown in contamination during the first half of December, the incidence rate started to rise again: 529.7 new cases positive for Sars-CoV-2 between 13 and on December 19 against 427.3 / 100,000 the previous seven days. Same trend in Cantal where the indicator has increased by 23.37% to reach 240.2 contaminations per 100,000 inhabitants (194.7 / 100,000 the previous week).
Given the rapid spread of the Omicron variant in the territory, the government has accelerated its schedule to strengthen as quickly as possible the response measures against the virus. A bill aimed at transforming the health pass into a vaccination pass will be presented on Monday, December 27, during an extraordinary council of ministers. Then, it will be examined immediately by parliamentarians under an accelerated procedure. The objective being that the new rules for managing the health crisis come into force by January 15.
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