Key Points

• Between June 1 and July 14, 2020, 320 emergency room visits due to drowning in France were recorded in the OSCOUR® surveillance network. This number represents a 26% decrease compared to the number of visits in 2018 (433 emergency room visits due to drowning) and in 2019 (437 emergency room visits due to drowning) for the same period. There are multiple factors contributing to this decline.

  • Until June 22, 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), along with restricted access to certain beaches, reduced swimming activity and thus the risk of drowning;

  • For the first half of July, the decline in tourist numbers in certain regions, particularly among foreign tourists, also had an impact on swimming;

  • Weather conditions (temperatures, sunshine, rainfall) were generally less favorable in June and early July 2020 compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019, despite a heat wave in late June 2020;

  • Weekends, which are more conducive to swimming, were fewer in number during the period from June 1 to July 14, 2020: 6 weekends compared to 6 weekends and one Saturday in 2018 and 7 in 2019. These hypotheses will need to be confirmed as monitoring continues.

• 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). The differences are more pronounced for the first half of July in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019.

• Between June 1 and July 14, 2020, 47% of emergency room visits for drowning in France involved children under 6 years of age, and 12% involved those aged 65 and older (Table 1). This age distribution of emergency room visits for drowning remains broadly 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 July 14, 2020, compared to the same periods in 2018 and 2019, applies to all regions except Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, Corsica, Nouvelle-Aquitaine, Pays-de-la-Loire, the Overseas Territories, and to a lesser extent, Provence-Alpes-Côte-d’Azur, where the number of emergency room visits for drowning remains 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).