Paris (AFP)

The heatwave that has raged in France since last week has seen its last moments but the authorities have new reason to be concerned with the gradual intensification of the coronavirus epidemic.

The head of state vacationing at Fort de Brégançon (Var) is due to chair Tuesday, by videoconference, a double defense council devoted to the situation in Niger and the epidemic.

Prime Minister Jean Castex is expected in the afternoon at the Montpellier University Hospital where he will visit in particular the Covid-19 unit of the hospital. The head of government will then go to the seaside resort of La Grande-Motte where vacationers, like everywhere else in France, are called upon not to forget the barrier gestures despite the heat.

The number of people diagnosed positive for Covid-19 has increased by 785 new cases in the past 24 hours. In all 10,800 new cases were recorded in one week.

"The circulation of the virus is intensifying, especially among young people and in certain regions, in the metropolises of Paris and Marseille", detailed Monday evening the Directorate General of Health (DGS) in a statement.

Asked Tuesday on France Inter, the head of the medico-surgical intensive care unit at the Raymond Poincaré Hospital in Garches, Professor Djillali Annane said he had observed "a dynamic of new contaminations" which "today greatly exceeds the identified clusters" .

"We are already at the foot of the second wave, and it reminds me of exactly what we saw last February," the professor warned. "The problem is that we see the thing happen, but without reacting as it should," he lamented.

In Paris, he said, "we had an incidence rate of 30 cases per 100,000 inhabitants a few days ago", while today this rate exceeds the alert threshold set at 50 (with 50.6 according to the latest figures from Public Health France).

"In two weeks or three weeks, we risk starting to have tension in the sheave, if we do nothing right away," he warned.

- Occasionally strong thunderstorms -

On the front of the heat wave, 15 departments remain in red vigilance. According to Météo-France, the heat wave should last "until Wednesday inclusive".

"A significant drop in temperatures is forecast for the west of the country on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday, we will no longer talk about heatwaves in France," forecasts Météo-France.

In the meantime, "there is today a heat wave effect on our patients at the level of emergencies and SAMU", underlined on RTL the doctor Patrick Goldstein, director of the emergencies of the CHU of Lille.

"It is estimated that we have an increase in activity of almost 30%. It happens 48 hours after (the start of) the heatwave and it is something that we expected", added the doctor, explaining that "those who are in a hurry are mainly the elderly".

The heat wave that the country has suffered should be among the five most severe known by France in recent decades, said Météo-France, noting however that this scorching episode is behind the historic heat waves of 2003 and 2006. .

Occasionally strong or even violent thunderstorms, locally accompanied by hail, heavy rains, violent squalls as well as numerous lightning discharges are expected in the afternoon and evening in many departments.

© 2020 AFP