Covid France: Are there more under 60s in intensive care?
Several French news outlets have reported that more people below the age of 65 are developing serious forms of the virus than before. We look at the figures.
News publications in France have been reporting in the past week that more younger people are being admitted to intensive care wards due to Covid-19 than before.
You can read that here in LCI and here in La Dépêche.
Both news sites suggest that it could be a combination of the Covid-19 vaccines taking effect (people aged over 75 have been being vaccinated since January 18) and new variants of the SARS-CoV-2 virus provoking a more serious form of Covid-19.
Dr Béatrice Riu-Poulenc, head of the multipurpose intensive care unit at the Hôpital Purpan - (CHU) de Toulouse, told La Dépêche:
“Between Rangueil (another hospital in Toulouse) and Purpan, only one patient over 75 years of age was treated by us.
“This is still notable, and it is the confirmation of a trend that we have been observing for the last three to four weeks. Today, more than 60% of our patients are under 65."
So, are more people under 60 developing serious forms of Covid-19 more now than before?
The answer is yes and no.
Looking at the numbers nationally - provided by CovidTracker.fr - we can see that there is a greater proportion of 50-59 year olds in intensive care units today than there was during the height of the second wave in November 2020.
Using the data from the graphs below shows that 50-59 year olds make up 17.2% of all Covid-19 patients in intensive care units in France.
On November 16, 2020, this age group made up 13.2% of all Covid patients in intensive care units. So today there are proportionally more people of this demographic with serious forms of Covid-19.
However, looking back to the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic in France, the trend is not consistent.
On April 3, 2020, 50-59 year olds made up 21.8% of the Covid-19 patients in intensive care units in France. This is before variants were reported and before the availability of Covid-19 vaccines.
On CovidTracker.fr, you can chart the evolution of the people in intensive care units in France by age since the beginning of the pandemic. From these numbers, it is not clear if today it is more common for a younger person to be in intensive care than it was at earlier stages of the pandemic.
This does not necessarily contradict what doctors working in intensive care units are reporting. Their observations could be marking a more local trend, and this may be good news, as it might represent the fact that vaccines are starting to have an effect.
On a national level, it remains to be seen if the fact that there is a greater proportion of people aged below 65 in intensive care units today than in November is anything out of the ordinary.
