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COVID-19 STATS

France reports new Covid case record as hospital patient numbers top 30,000

One in ten people have caught Covid in France since the start of the new year - case numbers remain at a record high with infection rates greater than in any other European nation.

Published: 26 January 2022 08:39 CET
People queue outside a pharmacy in western France.
People queue outside a pharmacy in western France. The country is once again facing record numbers of Covid cases. (Photo by LOIC VENANCE / AFP)

France posted 501,635 new cases of coronavirus for the past 24 hours on Tuesday, a new daily record and the first time the headline number has surpassed half a million.

The country is currently recording the highest daily infection rates of any major European nation, with an average of more than 360,000 over the past week.

More than 30,000 people are in hospital with coronavirus across France in the highest such tally since November 2020, official figures showed.

But only a little more than 3,700 were in intensive care, less than during previous periods of high infection.

On Tuesday morning, the French Education Minister told BFMTV that 4 percent of French classrooms were closed due to Covid-19. 

The highly contagious Omicron variant that is fuelling the latest wave is believed to be less dangerous than the previous dominant strain Delta. One in ten French people have tested positive for Covid since the beginning of 2022. 

Some 364 people died of the virus in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths from Covid in France to 129,489.

The latest figures came after new Covid rules came into force in France on Monday, with the health pass transformed into a vaccine pass.

READ MORE What changes on Monday as France introduces the vaccine pass?

People are now required to be vaccinated against Covid-19 to enter bars, restaurants, trains and planes.

A negative coronavirus test will no longer be enough to access leisure activities, some work events and long-distance travel.

More than 77 percent of France’s population has received two shots of an anti-Covid vaccine.

How France emerges from the current wave is seen as crucial in April presidential elections, in which President Emmanuel Macron is widely expected to run although he has yet to declare his candidacy.

Despite the high caseload, Prime Minister Jean Castex last week announced a timetable for lifting Covid restrictions in France from February 2.

Member comments

  1. Is it anything to do with the numbers of people getting tested? Are any statistics available for this? I wonder whether the fact is so easy (and free for most people) to be tested, that this is why there is such a high number. Do French people home-test so much? I wonder if countries like the UK might use home tests more, which then might not get reported when positive. Just a thought.

    1. I think this is very likely the case. Certainly the U.K. uses more home tests which they don’t report. I believe they no longer have to have a PCR test if they have a LFT that shows positive.

  3. Case numbers are now irrelevant. It is ICU and death numbers that are important. Most important is whether those people have comorbidities and what they are. Are people dying WITH Covid rather than FROM Covid. Just like the elderly and sick are hospitalised and die of influenza every winter. We need to stop this constant fear mongering but it’s elections so Macron will want to keep that running high.

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HEALTH

New Covid-19 variant on the rebound in France

French health authorities have noted an increase in hospital visits likely connected to Covid-19 as a new variant makes its away around France.

Published: 10 August 2023 10:06 CEST
New Covid-19 variant on the rebound in France

Covid-19 has been making a comeback in France since the end of July, via the new ‘Eris’ variant, or EG-5 strain, which has been connected to over a third (35 percent) of cases of the virus sequenced in France recently.

The variant is also spreading in Italy, the UK and the United States, and the World Health Organisation has announced that it is “closely monitoring the situation”.

Santé Publique France said on August 1st in their weekly bulletin that they had recorded a 26 percent increase in emergency room visits for suspected Covid-19 infection during the week of July 24th to 30th in comparison to the week previous.

This was particularly pronounced for older people, but “spanned age categories”.

Experts have said that ‘Eris’ is highly contagious – one professor at the University of Montpellier, Mircea Sofonea, told Le Figaro that the new strain is “more efficient in terms of transmission and […] is also more efficient in terms of immune escape”.

Nevertheless, Sofonea noted that the variant could be gaining ground simply due to a “natural immune decline in the general population”. 

The professor also told Le Figaro that there is no data indicating that this variation or its symptoms are particularly severe.

Similar to Omicron variants, symptoms such as cough, high fever, and runny nose remain common.

Epidemiologist Antoine Flahaul told Actu France that “there are no particularly worrying characteristics with this new variant”, but advised that people still exercise caution.

Notably, there was an upturn in cases following the annual Fêtes de Bayonne in French Basque country, which attracted over 1.3 million people. Sébastien Boucher, head of Axbio laboratories in the area told France Bleu that his centres recorded a 20 percent positivity rate in test before the festival, and a 35 percent rate afterwards in the area around Bayonne. 

Local media reported that pharmacies ran out of self-tests at the start of the festival, and that testing appointments increased significantly amid the Fête.

In February, the French government dropped the requirement to isolate after a positive Covid-19 test result, but health experts still recommend protective steps such as avoiding contact with immune-compromised people and informing those you were in contact with while contagious.

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