Key Points

In Week 51 (December 20–26, 2021), emergency department visits and subsequent hospitalizations declined sharply among those aged 2–14 (-21%), more moderately among those aged 15–74 (-6%), and remained stable among those under 2 and those aged 75 and older.

After a week of stability, visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups began to rise again (9,686 vs. 7,905 in Week 50, +23%). The share of activity is also rising (3.3% vs. 2.5% in Week 50), while the proportion of hospitalizations following visits is declining (44% vs. 49% in Week 50). The increases vary by age group: +40% among children under 2, +25% among those aged 15–74, +13% among those aged 75 and older, and +6% among those aged 2–14. Among adults, COVID-19 has moved up two spots to become the fourth (ages 15–74) and fifth (ages 75 and older) most common condition in emergency departments. At the regional level, emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 are on the rise in all regions except Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Grand-Est, Occitanie, and Hauts-de-France, where they remain stable. The sharpest increases are observed in the Île-de-France region (+65%, or +986 visits), Normandy (+48%, or +95 visits), Corsica (+45%, or +30 visits), and Brittany (+33%, or +39 visits). In the overseas territories, the number of visits continues to rise in Guadeloupe (+136%, or +15 visits), French Guiana (+64%, or +18 visits), and Réunion (+39%, or +51 visits). Since the start of surveillance on February 24, 2020, 613,909 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among other indicators, with the exception of cases of influenza and influenza-like illness, which are rising across all age groups (+41%, or +814 cases), and isolated fever, which is rising among children under 2 years of age (+8%, or +181 cases) and those aged 15–74 (+20%, or +368 cases), increases are observed only among adults: asthma attacks (+32%), gastroenteritis (+16%), and vomiting (+15%) among those aged 75 and older; pneumonia and ENT conditions (+9% among those aged 15–74). Among children, there were few increases, but the number of visits remained high for isolated fever, gastroenteritis, and vomiting, as well as for conjunctivitis.