Key Points

• Between June 1 and June 30, 2020, 157 emergency room visits due to drowning in France were recorded in the OSCOUR® surveillance network. This number represents a 29% decrease compared to the number of visits in 2018 (210 emergency room visits for drowning) and 2019 (233 emergency room visits for drowning) for the same period. This decrease is likely due to the closure of public and private paid swimming pools (municipal pools, recreational centers, amusement parks) and private pools for group use (hotels, vacation resorts, campgrounds, vacation clubs), as well as the restricted access to certain beaches until June 22, which significantly reduced swimming and thus the risk of drowning. Furthermore, weather conditions (temperatures, sunshine, rainfall) were less favorable in June 2020 compared to June 2018 and 2019, despite a heatwave in late June 2020. Finally, there were fewer weekends—periods more conducive to swimming—in June 2020: 4 weekends compared to 4 weekends and one Saturday in 2018 and 5 in 2019. These hypotheses will need to be confirmed in future monitoring.

• The daily variability in emergency room visits due to drowning in France, with peaks on weekends, was generally similar in June 2020 compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019 (Figure 1).

• Between June 1 and June 30, 2020, 45% of emergency room visits due to drowning in France involved children under 6 years of age, and 14% involved those aged 65 and older (Table 1). This age distribution of emergency department visits for drowning remains generally similar to that observed in 2018 and 2019 during the same period.

• The overall decline in emergency room visits for drowning between June 1 and June 30, 2020, compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019, applies to all regions except Corsica, Hauts-de-France, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Pays-de-la-Loire, and the Overseas Territories, where the number of emergency room visits for drowning remained stable (Table 2). Nevertheless, coastal regions continue to record the highest number of emergency room visits for drowning during this period.

• Disclaimer: These data are not comparable to those from the NOYADES surveys. The Oscour® system for collecting data on emergency room visits used to compile this report does not, unlike the NOYADES surveys, include victims of the most severe drownings—those whose condition required transfer to intensive care upon arrival at the hospital and those who died at the scene of the drowning. In the 2018 NOYADES survey, the most severe accidental drownings accounted for approximately half of all accidental drownings. Furthermore, data from the Oscour® network does not allow for distinguishing between victims of accidental drowning and those of intentional drowning (suicide attempts or assaults).