Perceived by many as ancient history, Covid is experiencing a perceptible rebound in France but so far moderate, with the approach of the school holidays and the Olympic Games.
“It started with sweats in the middle of the night, and legs that were trembling. At first, I put it down to the sudden changes in the weather. Until a colleague told me: “be careful, Covid comes back!” I was surprised at first, but I went to get tested after work, and it was dead positive”says Rita, a 40-year-old from Ile-de-France. “This is my second Covid, and I’m coughing a lot, knowing that I have asthma”she adds.
More than four years after the start of the pandemic, several signals of increasing circulation are converging, as in other European countries.
Progression of viral circulation
In the hospital or in community medicine, “Recourses for suspected COVID-19 have continued to increase for eight weeks”even if they still remain modest, observed Public Health France on Wednesday.
An increase “more and more marked”, both for visits to the emergency room (+52% over one week) and to SOS Médecins (+51%, with 1,507 procedures from June 3 to 10).
Wastewater, where the presence of Sars-CoV-2 is monitored in 12 stations, also shows a clear progression in viral circulation over the past month.
Young people were the first to illustrate the return of Covid, in the wake of the concerts of American singer Taylor Swift in Paris in May. On social networks, fans showed off their positive tests or incited others “Swifties” to get tested.
An epidemic rebound in several European countries
“After a long period of low activity”several European countries have experienced an epidemic rebound in recent weeks, the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) recently reported.
“The rise was predictable”judged Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist at the University of Montpellier and the Nîmes University Hospital, to AFP.
In question : “an immune decline” of the population, but also “an immune escape” new sub-variants of the virus, all members of the Omicron JN.1 lineage, according to this expert. The Spike protein, which allows SARS-CoV-2 to enter host cells, appears to have key mutations in these variants.
“There is no evidence to our knowledge that this new wave causes a greater health impact than the previous two”according to Mircea Sofonea.
Nothing suggests increased severity of current variants, including a new Omicron derivative, called KP.2 and nicknamed “FLiRT”, detected in Europe and the United States.
Watch out for the Olympics cocktail
Although, since May 2023, the World Health Organization no longer considers the pandemic a global health emergency, it regularly reminds that SARS-CoV-2 “continues to circulate and evolve.” The risk remains of a more dangerous variant.
“The evolution of Omicron since the end of 2021 shows us to what extent the evolution of SARS-CoV-2 is far from linear: older lineages resurface thanks to a significant evolutionary leap, then diversify , recombine”, noted the epidemiologist. And if SARS-CoV-2 has the potential to become seasonal, according to several experts, this is not yet a reality.
Over time and waves, the impact of Covid on hospitalizations and deaths has, however, greatly diminished, thanks to the high level of immunity acquired through vaccination and/or infections. But it is not zero, and long Covids are added to it.
If vaccines lose their effectiveness against infections over time, they remain very protective against serious forms, insist the health authorities. A new campaign, targeting those over 80 and the most vulnerable, began in mid-April in France.
To better match the mutations of the virus, the WHO recommended at the end of April formulations targeting the JN.1 lineage for future anti-Covid vaccines. The mask remains recommended, particularly in the event of symptoms, in busy places and in the presence of vulnerable people. And caution remains in order for the Olympic Games. Because the cocktail of “mixing, promiscuity, convivial context promotes the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, like other respiratory viruses”recalled Mircea Sofonea.
