As of July 28, 2024, the French health authorities registered close to 39 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in France. The first cases of the disease were recorded by the end of January 2020, with the highest increase in cases taking place between December 2021 and March 2022.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

This statistic shows the number of confirmed COVID-19 (coronavirus) cases in France as of March 25, 2020, split down by region. On that day (2:00 pm), there were a total of 25,233 cases registered in all of France. With 7,660 cases, the Paris region (Ile-de-France) was the region most touched by the outbreak. The overseas regions registered a total of 313 cases.

SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from a common cold to more severe conditions. But the virus in question here is a new coronavirus which causes a lung disease which has been named COVID-19 (Corona virus disease 2019). It made its first appearance back in December 2019 in the Chinese city of Wuhan. According to Chinese authorities, people infected with the virus could have contracted it by consuming products of animal origin from a large city market, the Huanan Seafood Wholesale Market. On March 11, the World Health Organization classified COVID-19 as a pandemic.

The situation in France

Although the number of confirmed cases is far less important than it is in China, France nevertheless features among the countries most affected by the outbreak. During a survey conducted in mid-March, 35 percent of French people stated being very worried about the spread of this new virus and 49 percent were rather worried. As of March 26, 1,333 people out of 25,600 infected had died from the virus and 3,907 had been listed as cured.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

IntroductionAutoimmune/inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIRDs) patients might be at-risk of severe COVID-19. However, whether this is linked to the disease or to its treatment is difficult to determine. This study aimed to identify factors associated with occurrence of severe COVID-19 in AIRD patients and to evaluate whether having an AIRD was associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19 or death.Materials and methodsTwo databases were analyzed: the EDS (Entrepôt des Données de Santé, Clinical Data Warehouse), including all patients followed in Paris university hospitals and the French multi-center COVID-19 cohort [French rheumatic and musculoskeletal diseases (RMD)]. First, in a combined analysis we compared patients with severe and non-severe COVID-19 to identify factors associated with severity. Then, we performed a propensity matched score case–control study within the EDS database to compare AIRD cases and non-AIRD controls.ResultsAmong 1,213 patients, 195 (16.1%) experienced severe COVID-19. In multivariate analysis, older age, interstitial lung disease (ILD), arterial hypertension, obesity, sarcoidosis, vasculitis, auto-inflammatory diseases, and treatment with corticosteroids or rituximab were associated with increased risk of severe COVID-19. Among 35,741 COVID-19 patients in EDS, 316 having AIRDs were compared to 1,264 Propensity score-matched controls. AIRD patients had a higher risk of severe COVID-19 [aOR = 1.43 (1.08–1.87), p = 0.01] but analysis restricted to rheumatoid arthritis and spondyloarthritis found no increased risk of severe COVID-19 [aOR = 1.11 (0.68–1.81)].ConclusionIn this multicenter study, we confirmed that AIRD patients treated with rituximab or corticosteroids and/or having vasculitis, auto-inflammatory disease, and sarcoidosis had increased risk of severe COVID-19. Also, AIRD patients had, overall, an increased risk of severe COVID-19 compares general population.

In addition to leisure tourists, the Paris region of Ile-de-France also attracts many business travelers due to hosting a large number of professional events such as congresses and trade shows. However, this was not the case in 2020, when many in-person events were postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to the source, spending losses related to the organization of association meetings amounted to *** million euros in Ile-de-France as of August 31, 2020.

In addition to leisure tourists, the Paris region of Ile-de-France also attracts many business travelers due to hosting a large number of professional events such as congresses and trade shows. However, this was not the case in 2020, when many in-person events were postponed or canceled due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. According to the source, spending losses related to the organization of trade shows amounted to *** billion euros in Ile-de-France as of August 31, 2020.