French Covid thread.
It’s getting complicated. Parts of France are doing fairly well. A dozen départements – in the north, the Paris area, Lorraine and the Nice area – are suffering sharp spikes in cases. Dunkirk has been placed under weekend lockdown today, following Nice 1/11
It’s getting complicated. Parts of France are doing fairly well. A dozen départements – in the north, the Paris area, Lorraine and the Nice area – are suffering sharp spikes in cases. Dunkirk has been placed under weekend lockdown today, following Nice 1/11
Covid variants (mostly the UK one) are responsible for this surge. To know which 13 départements are worst affected - a daily average of more than 250 cases per 100,000 – look at this map from the wonderful Covidtracker site @GuillaumeRozier. 2/11
The most stricken areas are Dunkirk with 900 cases per 100,000, four times the national average, and the Alpes Maritime department around Nice. Both are going into weekend lockdown for at least 2 weekends from Friday. The PM Jean Castex will announce other measures tomorrow. 3/11
Why these areas? Nord/ Pas de |Calais, close to the Channel, have been infected heavily by the Kent variant from across the water. But then so has Alpes|Maritimes, which is as far from UK as you can get in France. Moselle has the South African variant.
No simple explanation
4/11
No simple explanation
4/11
As the earlier map shows, much of the Paris area is also suffering a surge in cases - mostly the faster moving UK variant. Will Castex announce a weekend lockdown in the capital tomorrow? Not yet, I think. 5/11
President Macron is said to be determined to avoid a third nationwide lockdown if he can. We seem to be heading back into a system of varied regional and local restrictions. Remember the tricoloured map from last year? 6/11
The national stats which I follow in these weekly threads may now be of limited use but…
They are not too bad, reflecting the fact that the virus is receding in large swathes of France, especially in the west. side. Could these areas have their restrictions eased? Not yet. 7/11
They are not too bad, reflecting the fact that the virus is receding in large swathes of France, especially in the west. side. Could these areas have their restrictions eased? Not yet. 7/11
The average number of cases over the last 7 days was 20,108 – a jump on last week’s 18,464. Covid patients in hospital fell again sharply in the last 7 days from 25,974 to 25,660. Pressure on intensive care was slightly up - 3,435 beds last night, 85 more than days ago. 8/11
Good news: deaths are down sharply – 318.8 a day compared to 380.71 last week. The fall is very steep in care homes, 50% down in 3 weeks. (see graph below by @nicolasberrod, the best French journalist to follow on C19 stats).
9/11
9/11
This is surely a first sign of success for the much-criticised French vax campaign, which gave priority to care home residents (i-in-3 all deaths so far). Something like 79% have now had a first Pfizer jab (almost all those willing). More than half have had both jabs.
BUT
10/11
BUT
10/11
All the more reason for France to take the rest of its still very ponderous vax roll-out by the scruff of the neck. More on that in my weekly vaccine thread on Sat.
We are still in for a long, hard haul. Hang in there.
11/11
We are still in for a long, hard haul. Hang in there.
11/11
Sorry, incidence rate per 100,000 people is weekly not daily.
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