It’s a disease whose name everyone knows and yet which has almost disappeared from our vocabulary: Covid-19. It was already 5 years ago that the first fatal case linked to this virus was recorded. Today, it has become a commonplace pathology, forgotten by some, but which nevertheless still circulates.
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“It’s going to last two or three seconds, here we go…“, warns the doctor before carrying out the famous Covid test, still so feared among patients.
Already 5 years ago, the first tests appeared. They still exist today, but in a different format. “These tests now, they do: flu, Covid and RSV, 3 in one, so it’s much more comfortable for patients, instead of doing several separate tests, we only do one and we have the result after a few minutes so it’s very fast“, notes Florent Jendrzejewski, president of SOS Médecins Beauvais and general practitioner.
Today, Covid tests also detect influenza and RSV (Respiratory syncytial virus).
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© Corentine Sellie / FTV
And this is not the only adaptation in this Beauvais medical office. “For 2 years now, we have been equipped with oxygen bottles and nebulizers.“, shows the doctor. Equipment that has become standard, supposed to save patients a detour to the emergency room.”Covid or even the flu, for patients who have comorbidities, it affects the respiratory sphere more easily, so there is bronchial congestion, there are bronchi that tighten and therefore patients have difficulty breathingexplains Doctor Jendrzejewski. The use of this material makes it possible to open the bronchi and avoid an aggravation of these pathologies..”
If Covid circulates all year round, in winter, the flu remains the most widespread virus. The first week of January, 410 hospitalizations for flu were recorded in the region, compared to 16 due to Covid, according to Public Health France.
The number of hospitalizations linked to flu and Covid during the first week of January 2025.
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© FTV
The Coronavirus is therefore forgotten, just like wearing a mask and its barrier gestures. And this, even in places at risk. “JI think that with a mask or without a mask, if we have to catch it, we will catch it“, estimates a patient sitting in the SOS Médecins waiting room. “Personally, it no longer scares me, I have caught Covid three times, I have been vaccinated and I have been sicker with the flu than with Covid“, confides another patient.
At the start of the pandemic, there was much more concern. Gymnasiums and party halls had been transformed into giant vaccination centers. Five years later, this vaccine is far from being as popular.
In a pharmacy in Beauvais, in one day, only six doses were injected. “People have forgotten what Covid was, have forgotten everything that happened, but you have to know that despite this, there are people dying from Covid every day, so we have to be careful. , the most vulnerable people, particularly the elderly and those with various illnesses, must consider getting vaccinated.“, warns the manager, Guillaume Caron.
The first week of January, throughout France, 142 deaths with Covid mention were recorded.
Edited by Eline Erzilbengoa / FTV
