“Beware of promiscuity”, “avoid hugs” … After a period when young people were sometimes accused of promoting the circulation of the virus by continuing to party, it is now the retirees who worry the authorities. In Pays-de-la-Loire, the incidence rate of people over 65 has been on the rise again in recent days, much faster than that of the rest of the population. “Today it is 88 per 100,000 inhabitants [47,7 pour la population générale], this is the highest rate in metropolitan France, deplores this Thursday evening Jean-Jacques Coiplet, the director of the ARS. There is a very clear relaxation of barrier gestures, which must continue to be applied even with the health pass. “
Since early October, several festive gatherings of these “active retirees” could explain this increase, particularly visible in Maine-et-Loire and Vendée. In the viewfinder of the ARS, “the dancing teas “,” Balls “, but also organized trips in which contamination can go quickly …” There are sometimes 200, 300 or 400 people in closed places, without a reminder book which makes monitoring very difficult “, s ‘worries Jocelyn Vincent, head of the ARS health monitoring department. The latter reports that this week, ten positive cases were for example noted in the Sarthe among a group of 50 people who left by bus in the Pyrenees.
Hospitalizations on the rise
“The hypothesis is that these people, who have protected themselves well then who have been vaccinated for a while, relax even though they remain the population most at risk when they are infected”, observes Pierre Blaise, scientific director at the ARS, which encourages all those eligible for a third dose to go for a vaccination. If no hospital pressure has yet been observed, the number of people hospitalized has increased in recent days in the region: they are currently 180 (against 139 on Tuesday), including 41 in intensive care, for the majority of patients over 75 years old. .
Four vaccination centers will close
The appointment to be vaccinated against Covid-19 continues its free fall in Loire-Atlantique. So much so that the Regional Health Agency decided to downsize. Four centers (out of 13) will close at the end of the month: they are those of Pontchâteau, Saint-Philbert-de-Grandlieu, Savenay and Vertou.