Coronavirus: more than 23,000 contaminations in 24 hours (Illustration) -

Frederic DIDES / SIPA

While the government once again spoke on Thursday on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, hospital pressure remains high against a background of the progression of more contagious variants, according to data from Public Health France published in the evening.

More than 23,000 cases of Covid-19 contamination have also been recorded in twenty-four hours in France.

The number of contaminations (23,448) is down compared to the previous day (26,362), but remains on a high plateau, fluctuating between 20,000 and 26,000 since January.

The positivity rate is stable at 6.7%.

In twenty-four hours, 360 people were taken away by Covid-19 in hospital (against 358 the day before), bringing the death toll to 77,952 since the start of the epidemic in France

275 new intensive care admissions

The situation remains tense on the front of hospitals, which currently welcome 27,766 patients (-187 compared to Wednesday), including 1,752 new admissions.

Among them, 3,240 patients are treated in the intensive care units, including 275 who arrived in the last twenty-four hours.

During previous waves, the number of patients in sheaves had reached 7,000 in the spring and 4,900 in the fall.

The day before, 3,267 Covid patients were in intensive care.

No new confinement to date

“Today, six out of ten patients in our intensive care units are Covid patients, which means that many of our hospitals have to postpone less urgent care to free up beds,” Prime Minister Jean Castex said at the meeting. '' a press conference at the end of the day.

Health authorities fear hospital saturation, but to date, the situation "does not justify" a new confinement, he said.

To avoid this scenario, the government has renewed its prudential instructions, just before the start of the winter school holidays.

The British and South African variants of the coronavirus are being watched very closely because they raise fears of a further explosion of the epidemic before the vaccination can produce its effects.

"These variants do not constitute a potential threat but a very real one," warned Jean Castex, who has promised 1.7 million additional appointments for the first injections of vaccines in the coming days.

Thursday evening, 1.766 million people had received at least a first dose and 189,000 a booster, said Minister of Health Olivier Véran.

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