Key points

In week 6, the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 continued to decrease throughout France, with a confirmed drop in hospital admissions, but with virological and hospital indicators, as well as mortality, still at high levels.

• Metropolitan France:

  • Positivity and incidence rates down in all age groups

  • Decrease in hospital admissions in all regions

  • Drop in new intensive care admissions in almost all regions

  • Mortality remains high with over 1,800 deaths a week

  Overseas France:

  • Virological indicators and hospital admissions down in overseas regions but still highest in Reunion Island

Contact tracing

• Decrease in the number of cases and increase in the number of contact persons recorded in connection with the online service “List my contact cases” introduced by the national health insurance fund

• Decrease in the proportion of contact persons becoming positive cases

Variants

• Omicron accounted for 99.3 % of interpretable sequences in the week 5 Flash Survey of 31/01/2022

• BA.2 sub-lineage remains a minority but is increasing (10.7% on 31/01 vs 4.5% on 24/01)

Prevention

• Vaccination on 15 February 2022 (Vaccin Covid data):

  • 79.1% of the total population had received a complete primary vaccination series

  • 71.3% of the 18+ age group (representing 81.3% of those eligible) and 83.0% of the 65+ age group (90.7% of those eligible) had received a booster shot

• Importance of combining measures:

  • Complete vaccination series with a booster at 3 months

  • Compliance with preventive measures including wearing a mask and reducing contacts, along with other precautionary recommendations such as frequent ventilation of enclosed spaces, working from home and adherence to contact tracing