Occitanie passes Covid alert limit, Pyrénées-Orientales most affected

The region of Occitanie has surpassed the government’s alert threshold for Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people, with a notable increase in cases reported in the department of Pyrénées-Orientales.

Occitanie now has an incidence rate - the number of people positive for Covid-19 out of 100,000 - of 57, which is over the alert level of 50.

“The Delta variant is now dominant throughout the region, in all departments,” Pierre Ricordeau, head of the Agence régionale de santé (ARS), stated in a press release.

He said the increase in cases was “undoubtedly” linked to tourism, the high population density in coastal areas and also partly to the region’s proximity to Spain, where the national incidence rate is over four times higher than in France.

The only other metropolitan region over the alert threshold is Ile-de-France, which has an incidence rate of 54. The national rate is 39.

Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has, according to the latest figures, an incidence rate of 49, meaning it will likely cross the alert threshold soon.

In Occitanie, four out of the 13 departments have an incidence rate of over 50, with Pyrénées-Orientales particularly badly affected with a rate of 155 cases per 100,000 people.

The other departments are Haute Garonne (incidence rate 69), Ariège (incidence rate 52) and Hérault (incidence rate 65).

Impact on health services likely in the next few weeks

Healthcare services have not yet been impacted by the increase in cases, but that would likely be seen in a few weeks, Mr Ricordeau said. He added that the decline in hospitalisations and admittances to intensive care units (ICUs) has stopped.

Currently, there are 445 people in the region in hospital due to Covid-19, 53 people in ICUs and on average one person is dying from Covid-19 each day.

Around 11% of beds in ICUs in the region are occupied by Covid-19 patients, although this only takes into account the number of beds that were available in 2018, with more beds having been made available since the beginning of the pandemic.

Two out of three adults in the region have received a first dose of a Covid vaccine, and one third were completely vaccinated, the region’s ARS states. However, the agence said this remained insufficient and that there were still 100,000 people over the age of 65, who are vulnerable to serious forms of Covid-19, not yet vaccinated.

French President Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday (July 12) a series of new measures to combat the spread of Covid, including making vaccines mandatory for many health professionals and widening the usage of the so-called “health pass”.

Read more: Health pass extended, more vaccination: Macron’s anti-Covid measures

He said, "the equation is simple: The more we vaccinate, the less room there will be for the virus to spread, the more we will avoid hospitalisations and the more we will avoid other mutations of the virus which could be more dangerous still."

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