The Flu is Progressing at High Speed, Hospitals Worried about Christmas

A few days before the Christmas school holidays, “the map of mainland France is completely red” for the flu

The threat hangs over the hospital as the holidays approach Christmas. The flu epidemic is on the rise and worries the health authorities. This outbreak of fever risks having a “strong impact” on hospitals during the holidays, according to unprecedented projections from the Pasteur Institute and Public Health France (SpF).

A few days before the Christmas school holidays, “the map of mainland France is completely red” for the flu : all regions, Corsica understood, is in epidemic, observed Dr Bruno Coignard, director of the infectious diseases department at SpF, during a press conference.

Severe dynamics

If the winter epidemic, carried until now mainly by type A viruses (H1N1 and H3N2), started a little early, the dynamic is so far similar to that of previous seasons, 2023-2024 and 2022-2023, noted Dr. Coignard.

In France, the 2024-2025 season was particularly severe: more than 17,000 deaths, compared to 9,000 to 10,000 usually on average, 30,000 hospitalizations and around a hundred “white plans”, a system allowing operations to be canceled or staff on leave to be recalled.

The mask required for the holidays

The peak of the flu epidemic is, at this stage, expected more in the week of Christmas, with “15% chance that it will take place in week 51,0% in week 52 and 12% in week 1”, that of December 31, straddling the end of 2025 and the beginning of 2026. But “great uncertainty” persists about its “scale”, said Juliette Paireau.

At this stage, we cannot exclude a resumption of the epidemic after the Christmas holidays, as in the 2023-2024 season, or later as in 2022-2023. As the holidays approach, conducive to gatherings, there is still time to be vaccinated and barrier gestures (masks, etc.) remain recommended, insist the authorities, such as the Minister of Health Stephanie Rist wednesday evening on BFMTV.