We had almost forgotten about the virus. Since mid-July, however, all of Western Europe has experienced a upsurge in Covid-19 cases.
In France, the Bayonne celebrations, which were very busy at the end of July, notably caused an increase in contamination.
In its latest update on Friday, the French Public Health Agency noted a continued rise in indicators in most regions at the end of August, albeit at levels “weak”.
These indicators remain “a bit blurred due to the low number of tests and sequencing carried out everywhere”, underlines to AFP Antoine Flahault, director of the Institute of global health in Geneva.
“It is estimated that today we do less than 1% of the sequencing activity of two years ago in the world”he adds.
In France, the surveillance system for the virus has been considerably lightened and is currently close to that of the flu.
In this context, difficult to closely follow the circulation of the viruseven if the Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau assured Friday on France info which our “Monitoring system is still in place and vigilant to protect us against any resurgence of the epidemic whatsoever”.
Pirola
One certainty: the return to school on Monday promises to be a good time for the spread of the virus in schools, offices, public transport.
“The start of the new school year is the bed of autumn-winter epidemics of RSV (the bronchiolitis virus), influenza and now Covid”, reminds AFP Mircea Sofonea, epidemiologist at the University of Montpellier.
Omicron subvariants of the XBB lineage, including the EG.5.1 variant (nicknamed Eris), have become dominant in France today.
This last variant is more transmissible than its more recent predecessors, but there is currently no evidence that it is more virulent.
A new sub-variant of Omicron, BA.2.86, also appeared in mid-August with a few cases identified in several countries including France, with a sequence detected on Thursday.
WHO has decided to classify this new variant, dubbed Pirolain the category of variants under surveillance due to the very large number (more than 30) of mutations of the Spike gene that it carries.
“For the moment there is no particular signal of concern in the cases reported, but they are still too small in number to assess their characteristics”emphasizes Antoine Flahault.
“Be careful”
As a precaution, England announced at the end of August that it was advancing its vaccination campaign against Covid to September 11.
“The sooner we start the vaccinationthe better, because it will give more time to administer the vaccine”said Keith Neal, professor of epidemiology at the University of Nottingham at the Science media center.
In France, the new vaccination campaign against the Covid, coupled as last year with that of the flu, must start on October 17.
This vaccination will be “essential to protect people at risk of serious forms”insisted Public Health France on Friday.
But the will vaccines be effective? “Against the variants of the XBB line, including the sub-variant EG.5.1 (Eris), the formulation of the vaccine booster expected for the fall should be, since it targets these variants precisely”assures Antoine Flahault.
“On the other hand, if during the fall and winter, the BA.2.86 variant were to qualify and in turn become dominant, we do not yet know what its degree of immune escape from these vaccine boosters would be. “he adds.
Still, the immune status of the world’s population is very different from what it was when Omicron emerged, with a large proportion of people vaccinated or having been infected by different successive variants, allowing some protection to be maintained, notes the French health agency.
“There is no question of approaching the start of the school year with a ball in your stomach in the face of the Covid”, also reassures Mircea Sofonea. But “be careful, respect barrier gestures and isolate yourself if you are symptomatic” remain stringent requirements.