Key Points

In week 39, at the regional level, there was an increase in the rate of new hospitalizations and ICU admissions for COVID-19, as well as in the number of deaths among hospitalized patients. The number of new reports of suspected or confirmed Covid-19 cases reported by social and medical-social facilities has been rising since the last week of August, as has the number of clusters in long-term care facilities, highlighting the increased risk associated with the intensification of community transmission of the virus and its spread into communities of at-risk individuals. The increase in the incidence rate among those over 65 confirms this greater spread of the virus to age groups and individuals at risk of severe disease and raises concerns about continued hospitalizations and deaths in the coming weeks.

The incidence rate in the region appeared to stabilize in week 39. The positivity rate was rising across all departments, likely due to prioritization strategies and more targeted testing. However, the longer delays in consolidating data from the SI-DEP system (incidence, positivity, and testing rates) due to the saturation of testing capacity undermine these observations, and these trends remain to be confirmed once the data is complete in the coming days.