Summary

In Week 01 (January 4–10, 2021), the week schools reopened, emergency department visits and subsequent hospitalizations increased among children aged 2–14 (+24%, or +7,899 visits, and +15%, or +490 hospitalizations) and remained stable among adults (+5%, or +2,768 visits).

After three weeks of increases, visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups have stabilized (+0.7%). However, an increase is observed among children aged 2–14 (+37%, or +15 visits). Suspected COVID-19 remains the third most common diagnosis among those aged 75 and older and the seventh most common among those aged 15–74. In total, 5,543 visits were recorded in Week 01 (vs. 5,502 visits in Week 53—consolidated data as of January 12, 2021). The share of visits for COVID-19 in total activity remains stable at 2.4%, and the proportion of hospitalizations following a visit across all age groups has risen slightly to 58% (compared to 56% in Week 53). At the regional level, visits for suspected COVID-19 continue to rise in six metropolitan regions: Nouvelle-Aquitaine (+29%, or +92 visits), Pays de la Loire (+22%, or +42 visits), Occitanie (+12%, or +36 visits), Normandy (+11%, or +18 visits), PACA and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (+6%, or +44 and +48 visits, respectively), as well as in French Guiana (+72%, or +26 visits) and Guadeloupe (+100%, or +6 visits). Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 327,079 emergency room visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Seasonal illnesses are mostly on the decline among both adults and children.

Among the most common conditions, this week marking the start of the school year saw an increase in visits for malaise (+31%, or +127 visits) and vomiting (+17%, or +100 visits) among children under 15, for trauma (+50%, or +5,127 visits), abdominal pain (+59%, or +778 visits), and neurological disorders (headaches, migraines, epilepsy) (+42%, or +192 visits) among 2- to 14-year-olds. Among adults, there was a slight increase in visits for general malaise among those aged 15–74 (+8%, or 352 more visits) and chest pain among those aged 75 and older (+7%, or 81 more visits).