Summary

In Week 15 (April 6–12, 2020), visits to emergency departments and subsequent hospitalizations increased among children aged 2–14 (+20.5%, or +3,480 visits, and +12%, or +255 hospitalizations) and among adults aged 65 and older (+6%, or +3,246 visits; hospitalizations remained stable).

Over the past week, 19,037 visits across all age groups for suspected COVID-19 were recorded, representing 12% of total activity. For the second week, these visits have decreased (-30% compared to Week 14, or -8,029 visits). The sharpest decline is observed among those aged 15–64 (-33%, or -5,937 visits). In contrast, the hospitalization rate across all age groups remains stable at 43% and ranges from 17% among those aged 15–44 to 76% among those aged 65 and older. Among people over 45, hospitalizations following visits for suspected COVID-19 account for 16% of all hospitalizations following visits.
Of these hospitalizations, 236 were in intensive care units (3%). By region, in week 15, the majority of visits were observed in Île-de-France (32%), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (12%), and Grand Est (10%). Since the start of surveillance, 104,682 visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among other conditions, the following trends were also observed:

• a decrease across all age groups in visits for cough (-39%), pneumonia (-28%), dyspnea and respiratory failure (-17%), and isolated fever (-10%);

• an increase in visits for: stroke, particularly among young adults (+11% among those aged 15–44 and +6% among those aged 45–64); trauma (+23%); foreign bodies in children (+34%); gastrointestinal conditions (+15%), renal colic (+17%), and fainting spells (+9.5%) among adults.