Summary

In week 48 (November 23–29, 2020), emergency department visits increased among children aged 2–14 (+5%, or 2,004 visits) and adults (+3%, or 5,912 visits). Hospitalizations following visits remained stable across all age groups except among those aged 75 and older (+4%, or 906 hospitalizations).

In week 48, for the third consecutive week, visits due to suspected COVID-19 decreased by 29% (a decrease of 2,143 visits). This decline applies to all age groups: those under 15 (-22%, or -31 visits), those aged 15–74 (-31%, or -1,512 visits), and those aged 75 and older (-24%, or -600 visits). In Week 48, suspected COVID-19 was the 7th most common diagnosis among adults (vs. 4th in Week 47). A total of 5,374 visits were recorded in Week 48 (vs. 7,517 visits in Week 47—consolidated data as of 12/01/2020). The share of visits for COVID-19 in total activity has decreased to 2.4% (vs. 3.5% in W47), and the proportion of hospitalizations following a visit across all age groups remains stable at 57%. The decline is observed across all regions with the exception of French Guiana (14 visits in Week 48 vs. 9 in Week 47, a 56% increase) and Guadeloupe (12 visits in Week 48 vs. 3 in Week 47, a 300% increase). In mainland France, the decline is most pronounced in Corsica (-52%), Occitanie (-40%), Normandy (-40%), Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (-32%), Nouvelle-Aquitaine (-32%), and Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (-33%). Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 295,389 emergency room visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among other conditions, there was a slight increase in visits for general malaise (+4%, or 340 visits) and trauma (+5%, or 2,884 visits). There were also modest increases in visits for urinary tract infections (+9%) and abdominal pain (+11%) among children, and for cardiac decompensation (+14%), chest pain (+9%), abdominal pain (+8%), and dyspnea/acute respiratory failure (+7%) among those aged 75 and older.