France new COVID-19 infections down but hospitalisations up

French health authorities reported 3,082 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from a caseload of above 5,000 each on the two previous days, but the Monday figure always tends to dip as there are less tests conducted on Sundays.

French health authorities reported 3,082 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from a caseload of above 5,000 each on the two previous days, but the Monday figure always tends to dip as there are less tests conducted on Sundays. The seven-day moving average of new infections, which smoothes out reporting irregularities, stood at 5,167, reaching a new record for a fourth day in a row, versus a low of 272 on May 27, two weeks after the country ended its two-months long lockdown.

France's cumulative total of COVID-19 infections has reached 281,025, up 50% in comparison with the July 31 figure. The number of people hospitalised with the disease are up for the second day running after going down for almost two weeks.