At La Timone, “we wonder how we’re going to spend the end of year celebrations”

“The fifth wave is here,” says Lionel Velly, head of the intensive care unit at La Timone, in Marseille. With an incidence rate established at 168.9 positive cases per 100,000 inhabitants, according to data from Public Health France, the Covid-19 epidemic is clearly on the rise in the department with a weekly growth of 41.9%. In France, this rate is 106.2.

In the Bouches-du-Rhône, the age groups most affected are those of 20-39 years (234) and 40-60 years (192). The number of people admitted to intensive care has not taken off for the moment: 104 people are currently being treated there. On the other hand, “conventional hospitalizations are on the rise,” notes Caroline Ageron, departmental director of the regional health agency.

This increase is all the more rapid as the incidence rate has never fallen below 90 in the Bouches-du-Rhône. At the level of the variants, where the Delta is still hypermajority, the ARS continues its sequencing without detecting any new ones.

“The timing is not very good”

In La Timone, 74 people are currently hospitalized, a quarter of whom are under 47 for an average age of 55. The youngest is 31 years old and has no aggravating factors. “People who either only have one dose of vaccine, or whose two doses are older than six months. We really have to recall, ”insists Lionel Velly. “In intensive care, three admissions have been made in the last 24 hours. Those hospitalized during the fourth wave were starting to leave and those in the fifth wave are arriving ”. With 66% of vaccinated, the department still remains below the average, although the gap with the national average is slowly closing.

To make matters worse, “the timing is not very good, observes Caroline Ageron. The Christmas holidays are in a month and a half ”. A concern shared by Lionel Velly: “Each wave is a blow, given the pressure on the hospital system. We wonder how we’re going to spend the holidays. “

source site