With 31,519 new cases, France's daily Covid infections hit three-month high

 

France on Wednesday confirmed 31,519 new Covid-19 cases, the biggest one-day jump since mid-November last year, as very worrying situation in some departments forced the authorities to impose partial lockdown to fight the virus resurgence.

A higher single-day tally, at 45,522, was registered on November 17, according to official data.

As of Wednesday, France's cumulative number of Covid-19 infections totalled 3.66 million. Some 85,321 patients have died so far, after 277 more lost their lives to the virus in the past 24 hours, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Some 25,614 cases needed treatment in hospital, 46 fewer that Tuesday's figure. Of those hospitalised, 3,436 were put on ventilators, almost stable from a day before.

"The epidemic situation is deteriorating in our country...The epidemic has stopped decreasing and in some places it can even increase," said Health Minister Olivier Veran.

"We erased in one week the two consecutive weeks of decline that we had recorded so far," he added during a visit to the northern city of Dunkirk, where the incidence rate rose to over 900 per 100,000 residents per week, nearly nine times the national average. Read More