Summary

In Week 26 (June 28–July 4, 2021), emergency department visits were down among children and stable among adults; hospitalizations following visits were stable across all age groups.

After 10 consecutive weeks of decline, visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups are showing a moderate increase (+6%, with 947 visits in Week 26 vs. 891 in Week 25), with the share of activity remaining stable at 0.3%. This increase applies only to those under 15 (+15%, or +4 visits) and those aged 15–44 (+34%, or +113 visits), while the decline continues among those aged 45 and older. The proportion of hospitalizations following visits across all age groups has decreased to 42% (vs. 51% in Week 25). At the regional level, emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 are rising in PACA (+32%, or +17 visits), Occitanie (+26%, or +24 visits), Île-de-France (+25%, or +43 visits), Nouvelle-Aquitaine (+18%, or +10 visits), and Grand-Est (+15%, or +5 visits), and are stable or declining in other regions. Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 502,423 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Most seasonal indicators are declining across all age groups, with observed levels similar to or even lower than those of 2019–2020; however, among children and adults, there has been an increase in visits for asthma (9% and 16%, respectively) and insect bites (28% and 7%, respectively). Also worth noting is the increase in ENT infections (+8%), isolated fever (+12%), bronchiolitis (+12%), and urinary tract infections (+27%) among children under 2 years of age. Among adults, the few increases did not exceed an 8% rise compared to S25 (pneumonia and urinary tract infections at +8% among those aged 75 and older).