Summary

In week 20 (May 17–23, 2021), the number of visits and hospitalizations following visits increased among children aged 2–14 (+14%, or +6,996 visits, and +5%, or +216 hospitalizations) and adults aged 15–74 (+6%, or +12,429 visits, and +5%, or +1,797 hospitalizations).

Visits for suspected COVID-19 across all age groups and their share of total activity have declined for the sixth consecutive week (3,874 vs. 4,710 visits in Week 19, or -18%, and 1.4% vs. 1.7% in Week 19). This decline, which affects all age groups, is more pronounced among adults: -18% (i.e., -827 visits). The proportion of hospitalizations following a visit across all age groups is slightly down (51% vs. 54% in Week 19). At the regional level, visits for suspected COVID-19 are down in all metropolitan regions and in the overseas departments. Since the start of surveillance on February 24, 2020, 490,802 emergency department visits for suspected COVID-19 have been recorded.

Among other conditions: across all age groups, there has been an increase in visits for general malaise (+6%, or +525 visits), trauma (+7%, or +5,625 visits), abdominal pain (+10%, or +1,166 visits), and neurological conditions (+20%, or +969 visits), with more pronounced increases among children. Among children, there has been an increase in visits for bronchiolitis (+11%, or +89 visits, among those under 2 years of age; these visits have been rising again for the past two weeks) and ENT infections (+9%, or +458 visits); among adults, there has been an increase in chest pain (+7%, or +578 visits).