PARIS (Reuters) – France reported a drop in new COVID-19 infections for the fourth consecutive day on Sunday.
According to data from the Ministry of Health, there were 19,175 newly confirmed COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, compared to 20,586 the previous day.
But the data also showed that the number of patients treated in hospital rose to 27,694 from 27,369 the previous day, after a decline of four days. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also increased and increased to 3,272 from 3,225 the previous day.
The government has opposed requests for a third nationwide exclusion of health experts, fearing more contagious coronavirus variants could soon overwhelm hospitals.
The government intends to increase high pollution rates through a curfew rule and stricter rules for foreign travel. The junior transport minister said on Sunday that a ban on non-essential travel to and from destinations outside the European Union had halved the number of passengers within a week.
But doctors are particularly concerned about increasing cases of a coronavirus variant first detected in Britain.
The variant could be a majority of the new cases from the beginning of March, Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist and member of the government’s advisory board on COVID-19, told Le Journal du Dimanche.
The cumulative mortality rate in France in hospitals and nursing homes reached 78,965, compared to 78,794 a day earlier, data from the Ministry of Health showed.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Caroline Pailliez; Edited by Alison Williams and Timothy Heritage