PARIS (Reuters) – France reported 21,231 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, slightly higher than 20,701 on Friday.
The number of people in France who died from COVID-19 infections rose by 199 to 81,647 – the seventh highest death toll worldwide – from 320 on Friday.
There were 10,037 new patients admitted to the hospital during the past seven days with the disease and 1,795 new admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) during the period, the Ministry of Health said.
Unlike some of its neighbors who are struggling to control more contagious variants, France has resisted using a new lockout, hoping that a national curfew since December 15, first at 8pm and then at 6pm : 00, will be in place around the pandemic.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM television on Saturday that the French people had their patience at the end and that a new exclusion could only ‘be the last option if all the others were tried’.
However, some scientists believe that President Emmanuel Macron has taken a gamble by deciding against a new exclusion despite the threat of highly contagious COVID-19 variants.
Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the scientific council advising the government on COVID-19 policy, told Europe 1 radio on Saturday that he feared the variant first detected in Britain would cover the majority of cases in March. can account for.
In the Moselle region, in the east of France, where advanced cases have increased, the prefecture has at least ruled out closing schools now or applying a local lockout requested by some local officials.
The total cumulative number of cases in France rose to 3,448,617, the sixth highest in the world.
Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Edited by Angus MacSwan