Key Points

COVID-19

In Week 9 in Normandy, epidemic surveillance indicators continue to rise. Incidence rates are increasing in Calvados, Eure, and Orne, and remain stable in Seine-Maritime and Manche. Positivity rates are rising in all departments, while testing activity is declining. The effective reproduction number, which reflects the rate of spread, is rising and is above 1.

In hospitals, the situation is more mixed. There has been an increase in new admissions to general wards and intensive care units. The number of patients in intensive care is also rising, whereas the number of patients in general wards is decreasing. The number of patients who died during hospitalization also decreased in week 9.
The vaccination campaign continues; 94.7% of nursing home residents had received at least one dose, and 77% had received two.

In week 9, 54.5% of positive first-line tests (RT-PCR and antigen tests) recorded in SI-DEP were associated with a screening test (i.e., 3,976). Of these, 65.4% (2,602) corresponded to a suspected UK variant and 3.1% (124) to a suspected ZA or BR variant. Eure and Seine-Maritime had proportions of 79% and 68%, respectively, of suspected UK variants, Calvados 53%, Orne 65%, and Manche 33%. The proportion of suspected cases of the ZA or BR variants was 15.8% in Calvados, 11.4% in Manche, 7.4% in Orne, and less than 2% in the other departments.

Mortality

The age-standardized mortality rate in the Normandy region returned to a moderate excess in week 8. The data still needs to be consolidated. The number of deaths observed among patients hospitalized for COVID-19 decreased in week 9 compared to the previous week.

Bronchiolitis

In week 9, bronchiolitis activity continued to rise in emergency departments and at SOS-médecin, at levels higher than the same period last year, and is now classified as an epidemic. Twenty-six RSV cases were isolated by the Rouen University Hospital laboratory. Currently diagnosed respiratory infections are mainly due to rhinoviruses.

Gastroenteritis

Gastroenteritis activity in emergency departments and at SOS-médecin is decreasing, at a level lower than in previous years during the same period.