Summary

In Week 16 (April 19–25, 2021), the second week of school vacation for all three regions, the number of emergency department visits and hospitalizations following such visits increased among children aged 2–14 (up 11%, or 4,691 visits, and up 10%, or 405 hospitalizations, respectively) and, to a lesser extent, among adults (up 3%, or 8,288 visits, and up 2%, or 976 hospitalizations, respectively), while they were down among children under 2 years of age.

In Week 16, visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups and their share of total activity declined for the second consecutive week (10,659 vs. 11,418 visits in Week 15, a decrease of 7%, and 4% vs. 4.5% in Week 15). This decline applies to the pediatric age group (-12%, or -19 visits) and the adult age group (-7%, or -740 visits). Suspected COVID-19 is the third most common diagnosis among adults aged 15 and older. The proportion of hospitalizations following visits across all age groups rose slightly to 58% (vs. 56% in Week 15). At the regional level, visits for suspected COVID-19 are stable or declining in all regions, except in French Guiana (+24%, or +12 visits) and Réunion (+24%, or +17 visits). Since the start of surveillance on February 24, 2020, 466,333 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

In the context of school closures, all non-specific and seasonal indicators are declining among both children and adults, except for trauma cases (+10%, or +239 visits among children under 2 years old, +23%, or 3,885 visits, among those aged 2–14, and +12%, or 4,866 visits, among those aged 15–74). Among those aged 75 and older, there was a slight increase in visits for abdominal pain (+9%, or 220 more visits), cardiac decompensation (+8%, or 119 more visits), and dyspnea/respiratory failure (+7%, or 101 more visits).