Summary

In Week 11 (March 15–21, 2021), there was an increase in emergency department visits among children (+6%, or 4,418 visits) with a slight increase in hospitalizations following a visit (+4%, or 323 hospitalizations). Emergency department visits and hospitalizations following a visit remained stable among adults.

In Week 11, visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups increased (+17%, or +1,394 visits), as did their share of total activity (9,637 visits and a 3.6% share of activity in Week 11 vs. 8,243 visits and 3.2% in Week 10) for the second consecutive week. Analysis by age group shows a sharp percentage increase among children (+100%, or +98 visits) and a more moderate increase among those aged 15–74 (+20%, or +1,108 visits) and those aged 75 and older (+4%, or +77 visits). Suspected COVID-19 is the fourth most common diagnosis among those aged 15–74 and the third most common among those aged 75 and older. The proportion of hospitalizations following visits across all age groups has decreased slightly to 55%. At the regional level, visits for suspected COVID-19 are on the rise in all metropolitan regions except Corsica and Nouvelle-Aquitaine. The most significant increases were observed in Île-de-France (+27%, or +658 visits), Grand-Est (+25%, or +166 visits), Centre-Val-de-Loire (+25%, or +52 visits), Brittany (+25%, or +40 visits), and Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes (+17%, or +150 visits). In the French overseas departments, visits were stable or declining. Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 405,976 emergency room visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among seasonal and most common conditions in children, there was an increase in visits for respiratory illnesses: pneumonia (+48%), acute bronchitis (+27%), asthma (+26%), ENT conditions (+21%), and bronchiolitis (+12% in children under 2 years of age). Also among children, there was an increase in visits for isolated fever (+11%) and gastroenteritis (+9%). Finally, there was an increase in visits for chest pain among those aged 15–74 (+8%, or 610 visits) and for dyspnea and respiratory failure among those aged 75 and older.