France reports 22,501 new COVID-19 cases, up slightly week-on-week

Health Minister Olivier Veran said at a news conference that it was too soon to ease up on coronavirus containment measures and said that the isolation period for positive cases would be increased to 10 days from seven from Monday. He also said that the weekly death toll of COVID-19 was now at about the same level as the number of deaths in France from traffic accidents in an entire year.


Reuters | Paris | Updated: 19-02-2021 00:02 IST | Created: 18-02-2021 23:58 IST
France reports 22,501 new COVID-19 cases, up slightly week-on-week
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The French health ministry reported 22,501 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Thursday, compared with 25,018 on Wednesday and 21,063 last Thursday.

The seven-day moving average of new cases - which evens out daily data reporting irregularities - rose by 205 to 18,566 and the cumulative total of cases rose to 3.54 million. Week-on-week, the new cases tally rose by about 3.80%, the lowest percentage increase since Jan. 5.

France also reported 271 new coronavirus deaths over the previous 24 hours, after 310 on Wednesday, with the total virus death toll now at 83,393. Health Minister Olivier Veran said at a news conference that it was too soon to ease up on coronavirus containment measures and said that the isolation period for positive cases would be increased to 10 days from seven from Monday.

He also said that the weekly death toll of COVID-19 was now at about the same level as the number of deaths in France from traffic accidents in an entire year. Over the past seven days, 2,590 people died from COVID-19 in France. Last year, 2,550 people died on French roads, a drop of more than 20% compared with 2019 and the lowest in more than a decade as Covid lockdowns and curfews led to a sharp drop in traffic accidents, based on French government data.

The health ministry also reported that the number of people in hospital with the virus fell by 212 to 25,762, while the number of people in intensive care rose by 44 to 3,394, the highest level since early December.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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