After having exceeded the 20,000 mark the day before, France has reached a new level in the number of contaminations by Covid-19, recording more than 26,000 new cases in the last 24 hours, Saturday 10 October.

According to data released on Saturday by the authorities, France has identified a total of 26,896 new contaminations at 2 p.m.

A figure never reached since the start of the pandemic.

The toll now stands at 718,873 confirmed cases since the arrival of the coronavirus in France in March, and the test positivity rate stands at 11% (it was 10.4% on Friday).

Fifty-four additional deaths were recorded, bringing the total death toll to 32,684.

Increase in the number of patients in intensive care

The increase in the number of patients in intensive care continued on Saturday, according to figures from Public Health France (SPF).

A total of 1,456 people were in intensive care, 17 more than the day before, the highest since May.

New intensive care admissions, one of the other important indicators for monitoring the progress of the pandemic, are on the other hand down, with 110 patients, 40 less than on Friday.

At the peak of the pandemic, at the beginning of April, more than 7,000 patients were hospitalized in intensive care.

This number then fell sharply until the end of July, then evolved in a range of between 350 and 400 patients until the end of August, before resuming a constant increase.

The current national capacity is around 5,000 intensive care beds.

The total number of hospitalized patients, which also includes less severe forms of the disease, continues to increase continuously, to 7,976 on Saturday, up 133 from the previous day.

With AFP

The summary of the week

France 24 invites you to come back to the news that marked the week

I subscribe

Take international news everywhere with you!

Download the France 24 application

google-play-badge_FR