PARIS (Reuters) – France reported a drop in new COVID-19 infections on Sunday for the fourth day in a row.
Data from the Ministry of Health showed that there were 19,175 new infections confirmed by COVID-19 in the last 24 hours, compared to 20,586 the previous day.
But the data also showed that the number of patients treated in hospital for the disease rose to 27,694 from 27,369 the previous day after a four-day decline. The number of patients with COVID-19 in intensive care also increased to 3,272 from 3,225 the day before.
The government has resisted calls for a third nationwide blockade by health experts who fear that more contagious variants of the coronavirus could soon overwhelm hospitals.
The government aims to reduce high rates of contamination through an evening fire and tougher rules on travel abroad. His junior transport minister said on Sunday that banning non-essential travel to and from destinations outside the European Union had halved the number of air passengers in a week.
But doctors are particularly concerned about the growing cases of a variant of coronavirus first detected in the UK.
The variant could represent the majority of new cases since early March, Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist and member of the government’s advisory body for COVID-19, told Le Journal du Dimanche.
The cumulative death toll in France in hospitals and nursing homes reached 78,965, compared to 78,794 a day earlier, the health ministry said.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Caroline Pailliez; Edited by Alison Williams and Timothy Heritage