Covid19. As the restrictions ease, what is the health situation in Côte-d’Or and Dijon?
The Omicron wave “collapses”. This is what the Minister of Health Oliver Véran said on February 20 to the Grand Jury RTL-Le Figaro-LCI. The figures for the evolution of the Covid-19 epidemic have not been given to him so far.
We even note that the month of February was decisive: it was around mid-February that the switch to a more favorable situation took place. However, although the situation bodes better than at the beginning of the year, it is still worrying with a number of people hospitalized which is still considerable for the health system. It is still today the downward trend that is above all the “good news”.
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A real drop in the incidence in Côte-d’Or
The first indicator of the epidemic, and extremely scrutinized because it makes it possible to anticipate hospital overload, the incidence rate has experienced a real drop since the beginning of February in Côte-d’Or. At the height of the fifth wave, between January 18 and 24, it was 3,999.7 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants. A record for the department.
As of March 1, the latest available data show an incidence rate of 549.3 out of 100,000 (week of February 20 to 26). This remains well beyond the alert threshold, set at 50 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants by the government.
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The metropolis of Dijon was hardest hit
The other scales of the incidence rate allow us to better know which territories have been the most impacted. Thus, at the height of the fifth wave, the incidence rate in the general population in the metropolitan area of Dijon was 4,295.8 / 100,000 (week of January 17 to 23). That is much more than the whole of the Côte-d’Or. According to the latest figures available, on March 1, it fell to 531.2 positive cases per 100,000.
Finally, the incidence rate in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté was, at its peak, 3,737.7 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants (week of January 19 to 25). Either less than the Côte-d’Or or the metropolis of Dijon. As of March 1, the regional incidence rate is 536.6 / 100,000.
A decline in hospitals since mid-February
At the beginning of February, in the hospitals of Côte-d’Or, the number of hospitalizations was on the rise. Between February 1 and 6, medical structures admitted 36 additional patients. Then the number of patients began to stagnate between February 6 and 17: from 300, we went to 306 patients. With all the same the peak of the fifth wave, between February 12 and 13, at 313 patients.
From February 17 to March 27, the number of patients fell rapidly, to 226 people hospitalized. The curve has stabilized since then, and on March 1, on account of 223 patients with Covid-19 in Côte-d’Or.
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In the rest of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 1,016 people were hospitalized on March 1. The Côte-d’Or is the most affected department. Then comes Yonne (184 patients) and Saône-et-Loire (154 patients).
In intensive care, a sawtooth evolution
The situation in critical care and intensive care units is much less clear than for all hospitalizations. The evolution, in the month of February, will have been sawtooth.
Thus, on February 1, there were 41 people in a critical situation. On February 5, a monthly peak was reached at 46 patients. The progression is then down, despite some sporadic increases between February 19 and 22.
As of March 1, the Côte-d’Or has 32 patients in intensive care or critical care. In Bourgogne-Franche-Comté, 99 patients were admitted to these services: Doubs is the second most affected department behind Côte-d’Or, with 28 patients in these services.
High mortality in February, two deaths on average per day
What will also have marked the month of February is the particularly high mortality from Covid-19 in our department. In one month, 60 people died of Covid-19 in hospitals, an average of two deaths per day. This increase in mortality has been observed since the beginning of 2022.
Several days were dark for the Côte-d’Or: February 6, with 9 deaths according to Public Health France, February 2 and 10, with 6 deaths, and February 28, with five deaths. Always according to figures from Public Health Francethere are only six days without any death linked to Covid-19 in hospitals in Côte-d’Or in February.
Since the start of the epidemic, in March 2020, the Côte-d’Or has had 1,128 people who have died in hospitals. Saône-et-Loire is still the department most affected by the disease linked to the coronavirus, with 1,313 deaths. No other department of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté passes the bar of 1,000 deaths in hospitals.