COVID hits the headlines again in the middle of summer in France and other countries, with a moderate increase in the epidemic until then, but one that requires vigilance.
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Reports of a resurgence of the epidemic are also being reported from the USA, the United Kingdom, but also from India and Japan.
The SARS-Cov-2 virus, which had disappeared from most people’s minds after more than three years of the pandemic and several waves, was recently recalled by some French people. Some remaining indicators confirm such a recovery.
According to Public Health France, emergency room visits for suspected COVID increased by 31% in the week of July 31 to August 6 compared to the previous week, affecting 920 patients.
“Staff who remain moderate,” the health department noted. The waves of summer or winter 2022 were accompanied by more than 4,000 weekly passages.
AFP
And in the SOS Médecins network, “medical interventions for suspected COVID-19 are increasing in all age groups”, with more than 1,500 interventions at the beginning of August, an increase of 84% in one week, according to the SpF.
If the WHO no longer considers the pandemic a global health emergency since early May, “the virus continues to circulate in all countries, continues to kill and change,” stressed its director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus on Wednesday during a press meeting. ‘a press conference.
His EG.5 version, dubbed Eris by some scientists, is currently the most studied as it could carry the rebound. Summer gatherings and waning immunity could also play a role, according to some experts.
A member of the XBB lineage, this subvariant of the Omicron family appears to be more transmissible than other circulating variants, likely due to novel genetic mutations, and may be better able to evade immune defenses.
“It has been identified in India, but also in other Asian countries, in North America and in Europe, where it tends to displace the previously dominant strains,” Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute for Global Health at the University of Geneva, told AFP.
At this time, “the available evidence does not indicate that EG.5 poses additional public health risks compared to other circulating omicron progeny lines,” according to the WHO.
But “the risk remains that a more dangerous variant will emerge and lead to a sudden spike in cases and deaths,” said Dr. tedros
However, monitoring epidemic fluctuations is more complicated due to a lack of data since the number of tests, sequencing, and surveillance equipment have declined.
AFP
“The fog over the epidemiological situation around the world is thick. “There is an urgent need for health authorities to reintroduce a reliable health surveillance system for COVID,” said Antoine Flahaut, who is particularly committed to the analysis of wastewater in Europe.
Over time and waves, the impact of COVID on hospital admissions and deaths has greatly diminished thanks to high levels of immunity acquired through vaccination and/or infection. But it’s not zero and the long COVIDs add to that.
And “the question is whether immunocompromised and elderly people are prescribed tests even with minor symptoms in order to benefit from early antiviral treatments that are effective in reducing the risk of serious forms,” said Antoine Flahault.
Vaccination remains crucial, and the WHO on Wednesday called for “intensifying efforts to increase vaccination coverage”.
AFP
Even if the anti-COVID vaccines lose their effectiveness against infections over time, they are still considered to be very protective against severe forms.
In order to better counteract the mutations of the virus, the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna and Novavax are now preparing vaccines against the XBB line, as recommended by the WHO in spring.
AFP
Vaccination campaigns aimed at those most at risk are planned for this autumn in several countries, including France, coupled with vaccination campaigns against the flu.