More than 35,000 new cases in 24 hours, more than 3,000 people in intensive care: the health situation is deteriorating in France.

The confinement, in force since midnight Thursday, arouses the anger of independent traders and elected officials.

Follow the evolution of the situation live. 

LIVE

Indicators of the coronavirus epidemic continue to deteriorate in France.

More than 35,000 new cases were noted in 24 hours, according to the latest figures from Public Health France.

The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in intensive care or intensive care stood at 3,443, with 339 new admissions since the day before.

In Europe, England and Austria have decided on a reconfinement for several weeks while Greece and Portugal have toughened their measures.

Follow the evolution of the situation live. 

The main information to remember

  • More than 35,000 cases in 24 hours in France

  • England and Austria reconfigure

  • Over 45 million cases worldwide

More than 3,000 patients in intensive care

The health situation is deteriorating further in France.

The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in intensive care or intensive care stood at 3,443, with 339 new admissions since the day before, according to figures from Public Health France.

Taking into account the discharges, the number of Covid-19 patients currently in intensive care has increased by 75 since Friday.

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The proportion of patients among those tested (positivity rate) increased slightly, to 20.2%, against 20% the day before.

35,641 new cases of contamination were recorded over 24 hours, against 49,215 the day before, bringing the number of people infected to more than 1.3 million.

Also over 24 hours, the pandemic caused 224 deaths recorded in hospitals.

France has 36,788 deaths due to the Covid-19 epidemic. 

Christmas threatened? 

Christmas "will not be a normal holiday" this year and "it is difficult to envisage big evenings" for the New Years Eve of December 31, warned the Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

The minister hopes, however, that the sanitary conditions will allow "families to reunite", he said in an interview with the 

Journal du Dimanch

e.

"Our goal is for the epidemic pressure to fall so that we can do errands on time, prepare with joy, so that the conditions are created allowing families to meet again," added Olivier Véran. 

Angry traders 

Since midnight Thursday, a new confinement has entered into force in France.

Even if some measures are lightened compared to last March, all restaurants, bars and shops deemed "non-essential" must remain closed.

A decision which angered traders and independents, denouncing unfair competition from hypermarkets and online sales platform.

Mayors of small and medium-sized towns (Perpignan, Brive, Beaune, Valence, Chalon-sur-Saône, Colmar, etc.) have issued decrees authorizing the opening of non-food businesses in their municipality, denouncing this "inequality" of treatment.

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The mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo announces "a joint initiative", with other cities, "to authorize the reopening of independent bookstores", closed due to confinement, in an interview with the

Journal du dimanche. 

"Culture is essential, it is a mistake to sacrifice it", explains the socialist mayor, who "deplores that certain local shops, more than ever necessary to maintain social ties and fight against the effects of isolation, have been closed, at least initially, like bookstores or hairdressing salons ". 

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"The epidemiologist in me should say that everything must be closed, bookstores and supermarkets", reacted Professor Eric Caumes, head of the infectious diseases department of the Pitié-Salpêtrière hospital, on Europe 1 Saturday evening.

"But from the moment we leave large stores open, I do not see why we should not leave small shops open. I am not sure that the risk is greater in small traders than in supermarkets." 

 Faced with the controversy, Fnac-Darty announced Friday to close "all the culture departments" of its stores, "for the sake of responsibility".

And the government announced that the book and culture departments of supermarkets and specialized food would be "temporarily closed from [Friday, editor's note] evening".

On Europe 1, Agnès Pannier-Runacher indicated that the government had asked Amazon to withdraw its pre-Black Friday promotions, which began on Monday.

The American giant accepted, explains the Minister for Industry.

Encontainment in Europe

In the UK, faced with a resurgence of the coronavirus epidemic threatening to overwhelm its hospitals, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced a re-containment in England from Thursday until December 2 (knowing that Wales was already contained, and Northern Ireland in partial containment).

Schools and universities will remain open, but travel is severely restricted, residents called upon to telecommute, and only pubs and restaurants offering take-out food or deliveries can remain open.

In Austria, "a second lockdown is also in place from Tuesday until the end of November," Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said.

The country of 8.8 million inhabitants now records more than 5,000 daily cases, against only 1,000 at the beginning of October, for 1,109 deaths since the emergence of the pandemic.

Belgium announced more severe containment on Friday, and Germany also tightened restrictions in place in the country to slow the pandemic.

Portugal will be subject from Wednesday to a partial reconfinement concerning 70% of its population, announced Saturday evening Prime Minister Antonio Costa.

Greece had announced earlier in the day a partial one-month lockdown in Athens and other major cities in the country from Tuesday.

As elsewhere, the objective is to "try to save the Christmas holidays", explained the Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.

Over 45 million cases

The novel coronavirus pandemic has killed at least 1,189,892 worldwide since the WHO office in China reported the onset of the disease at the end of December, according to a report compiled by AFP from official sources Saturday at 11:00 GMT.

More than 45,650,850 cases of infection have been officially diagnosed. 

The United States is the most affected country in terms of both deaths and cases, with 230,320 deaths for 9,111,013 cases recorded.

Brazil (159,477 dead), India (121,641 dead) and Mexico (91,289 dead) follow.

Latin America and the Caribbean, the region with the most Covid-19 cases in the world, has passed the threshold of 400,000 deaths from the coronavirus, according to a count established by AFP.