Key Points

In Week 18 (May 2–8, 2022), emergency department visits and hospitalizations following such visits increased among 2- to 14-year-olds (+7%, or +4,199 visits, and +6%, or +297 hospitalizations). For other age groups, visits and hospitalizations remained stable or declined.

For the third consecutive week, Week 18 saw a decrease in visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups (3,175 vs. 4,416 visits, or -28% vs. -32% in Week 17). The share of activity is slightly down (1% vs. 1.4% in Week 17) and the proportion of hospitalizations is stable (45% vs. 44% in Week 17). COVID-19 has dropped out of the top 10 most common conditions in emergency departments among those aged 75 and older and has fallen to 10th place among those under 2 years of age. At the regional level, emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 are down in all regions except Réunion, where they are up (+46%, or +34 visits), and Mayotte, where they remain stable. Since monitoring began on February 24, 2020, 788,011 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among other indicators, the following are observed:

• among children and adults: an increase in visits for hyperthermia and heatstroke (+93%, or +25 visits), insect bites (+10%, or +45 visits) among those aged 2–14 and 15–74, and asthma attacks (+20%, or +197 visits) among those aged 2–14 and 75 and older;

• among children only: an increase in visits for trauma (+10%, or 2,717 visits), for feeling unwell (+24%, or 108 visits), and abdominal pain (+10%, or 258 visits) among those aged 2–14;

• among adults only: an increase in cases of chickenpox (+41%, or 26 additional visits) among those aged 15–74. Chickenpox remains at a higher level than in previous years among both adults and children.