Covid-19 back in Europe with a new variant

Emergency room visits for suspected Covid-19 are on the rise among children under 2 and adults for the week of July 31 to August 6 in France, according to data from the Oscour network (Organization for Coordinated Emergency Surveillance).

In its bulletin published on Tuesday, the network reports a 56% increase in emergency visits for this reason among children under 2 years old, 25% among 15-74 year olds and 34% among those over 74 years old. The previous bulletin, which covered the week of July 24 to 30, had already noted an increase in passages for suspected Covid-19 infection.

For this same week, SOS Médecins also notes an 85% increase in medical procedures for suspected Covid-19, all age groups combined.

Eris, a new variant that is emerging is the basis of this new wave of contamination.

EG.5.1 variant has been designated “next to follow” by the World Health Organization.

The UN agency explains that several countries with an increasing prevalence of this variant have also seen an increase in their number of cases and hospitalizations, but that this does not necessarily mean that the severity of the disease increases with this variant.