French COVID-19 hospitalisations down for fifth day

The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 infections rose by 261 to 85,582 - the seventh highest death toll globally - versus a seven-day moving average of 313. As already flagged earlier by French Health Minister Olivier Veran, there were 25,403 additional new cases over the last 24 hours, versus 22,501 a week ago.

French health authorities said on Thursday the number of people hospitalised for COVID-19 went down for the fifth day running, at 25,317, a figure published shortly after Prime Minister Jean Castex warned of possible local lockdowns to rein in the disease. The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 infections rose by 261 to 85,582 - the seventh highest death toll globally - versus a seven-day moving average of 313.

As already flagged earlier by French Health Minister Olivier Veran, there were 25,403 additional new cases over the last 24 hours, versus 22,501 a week ago. That bring the cases total to 3.687 million since the outbreak of the disease almost a year ago, the sixth-highest in the world.