Update on the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic in France and around the world.
The situation in France
The number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 infection continued to rise on Wednesday, according to daily figures released by health authorities. Hospitals had 21,688 patients on Wednesday, compared to 21,300 on Tuesday and 20,653 a week ago. Among them, there are 1,892 new admissions, against 1,373 last Wednesday.
The number of critical care admissions also increased over one week (152 against 109 last Wednesday). The number of people in critical care is almost stable, at 1,546 (against 1,538 on Tuesday and 1,564 the previous Wednesday). The number of contaminations amounted to 169,024. The rolling seven-day average, which gives an idea of the real evolution of the epidemic, amounted to 136,837 cases, against 133,484 the day before and 104,176 cases the previous Wednesday.
In the past 24 hours, 132 deaths have been recorded in hospital (compared to 101 seven days ago). A total of 142,134 people have died from Covid in France since the start of the epidemic more than two years ago. With regard to vaccination, a total of 54.26 million people have received at least one injection (80.5% of the total population), 53.35 million have a complete vaccination schedule (79.1%) and 39, 52 million received a booster dose.
WHO’s Worst Case Scenario
The WHO has outlined the three paths that the Covid-19 pandemic could take this year and the worst-case scenario envisions a new, more virulent variant than those that have already claimed millions of lives for more than two years. The most likely scenario in the eyes of the UN organization is however less dramatic. He is counting on a gradual decline in the severity of the disease caused by the virus, thanks to better population immunity. The WHO on Wednesday published a revised version of its strategic plan to fight the pandemic.
Its chief executive Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus hopes it will be the last, as the disease, which was first detected in China at the end of 2019, has spread worldwide, claiming more than 6 million lives, according to the official figures but undoubtedly much more for lack of precise accounting. “Based on what we now know, the most likely scenario is that the virus will continue to evolve, but the severity of the disease it causes will decrease as immunity increases thanks to vaccination and infections”, explained doctor Tedros, during a press briefing.
Peaks of infections may reappear from time to time as immunity drops again, which will require booster vaccinations, especially for vulnerable people. “In the best of cases, we would see less severe variants emerge and there will be no need for new formulas of booster doses and vaccines”, to combat them added the boss of the UN organization., But ” in the worst-case scenario, a more virulent and highly transmissible virus emerges. Faced with this new threat, the protection of populations — thanks to a previous vaccination or infection — against severe forms of the disease or death will be reduced quickly,” says Dr. Tedros.
It would then be necessary to modify the existing vaccines significantly and to ensure that they are distributed to the most vulnerable people. Maria Van Kerkhove, who oversees the fight against Covid for the WHO, stressed that even in its current form “the virus still has a lot of energy”. Last week, more than 10 million people were infected and 45,000 died, according to figures sent to the WHO. But the number is certainly much higher. Many countries that have lifted most of the health restrictions to control the pandemic have also at the same time drastically reduced the number of tests, making it very difficult to measure the evolution of the pandemic.