With 30,000 new cases a day, Covid has returned to France. An eighth wave confirmed by Pr. Olivier Epaulard, specialist in infectious diseases at the university hospital of Grenoble, a guest this Wednesday morning at France Bleu Isère.
With 30,000 new cases a day, the covid returned to France and then to Isère. Confirmed an eighth wave of the host of France Bleu Isère this Wednesday morning, Professor Olivier Epaulard, specialist in infectious diseases at the University Hospital of Grenoble. We still count far fewer hospitalizations than in previous waves, thanks in large part to vaccination. In addition, those over 60, caregivers or those close to frail people are encouraged to receive their second booster dose.
France Bleu Isère – There are currently 30,000 new cases of covid contamination per day. Are we really facing a new wave?
pr. Olivier Epaulard: In terms of cases, in fact, for two weeks now, in Isère as elsewhere, we have been increasing in the number of positive cases. But, anyway, not yet, on inpatient cases. We still have some hospitalized cases of rather fragile people with Sars-CoV2 infection but for the moment we are not on the wave of hospitalization.
And how do we explain it?
We have built what we might call a kind of immunization wall. That is to say that thanks to vaccination, largely also thanks, if we can say so, to the fact that the virus circulated a lot in the form of Omicron in 2022, people have built a fortissimo that allows them to avoid very serious forms, except perhaps in the most frail people, and this means that even though we are currently seeing an increase in incidence of 10 to 20% per week in the number of cases, we do not see a hospital situation at all as we have known it. We are light years away from the crises of 2020.
And precisely you were talking about vaccination. A part of the population is called to be vaccinated again, to make a second booster dose with new vaccines starting from next Monday. Over 60s, people in contact with fragile people, even caregivers. Is this second booster dose useful for this part of the population?
First of all, to pick things up a bit, this is not a new campaign since it is from this summer that this proposal has been made for the over 80s and even more generally for the over 60s, for the frail people and for health workers. take this second booster, planning to do so if it is more than six months after the last dose, or even simply more than three months after the last dose for the over 80s. I count better than the Micron. People who have been six months since the last dose and who have some frailty can be vaccinated with this antimicrobial vaccine.
And was there a need to finally remind these people that they have to go back to get vaccinated?
In any case, in fact, the fact that this news of the arrival of these vaccines that aim a little better at the Micron allows us to transmit the message again. And then the message is twofold: both of you if you are in this particular frailty, you are over 60, make this memo six months later. And also, while the virus circulates indoors, on public transport, we put on the mask.
Is it a habit that needs to be resumed?
It’s a barrier gesture that works very well. And since we are in a period of recirculation, it makes a lot of sense to resume at least this barrier gesture of the mask when we are indoors, especially transport.
But does this mean that every winter, finally, we will have to resume this habit of putting on the mask because Covid will return anyway?
This is a tough question. What we have done there in a somewhat exceptional way over the past two years for the covid, does it predict what we will do for another two or three years? Opinions are divided. We can see that thanks to vaccination the consequences of the infection are less and less serious even if there are cases. And so perhaps within a year, within two years, we will be in another less impactful form of virus circulation. So we don’t have to say oh dear, now we will be asked, every year, for 50 years, to wear the mask for six months of the year as soon as we are indoors. No, simply, we are in a sense piloting recommendations regarding what is happening a little day by day or week after week in terms of increased cases. We don’t have to tell ourselves that we are acquiring habits for an entire generation, for example.
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