French coronavirus death toll close to 22,000 -ministry

The number of people who have died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 516 to 21,856 on Thursday, the health ministry said in a statement.

The 2.4% increase was slightly slower than on Wednesday and Thursday, when the death toll increased by 2.6%, but well below the more than 4% rate seen last week.

The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 infection fell further to 29,129 from 29,741 on Wednesday and the number of people in intensive care fell to 5,053 from 5,218 on Wednesday. Both have been on a downward trend for several days.