Paris (AFP)
France has exceeded in the last 24 hours the 4,700 new cases of Covid-19, an unprecedented increase since May, according to figures released Thursday by Public Health France.
Over the last day, 4,771 new positive diagnoses were recorded, against 3,776 on Wednesday. Since May, this is the first time that the bar of 4,000 new cases over 24 hours has been crossed.
In total, 18,638 people have tested positive for Covid-19 over the past seven days.
And the percentage of positive tests continues to increase slightly, to 3.3% from 3.1% on Wednesday. 33 new foci of grouped cases (clusters) were detected, also indicated Public Health France.
French hospitals have admitted 149 new patients with Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, up from 162 on Wednesday, according to figures released Thursday by the Directorate General of Health (DGS). In total, 4,748 people are hospitalized for a Covid-19 infection, a decrease (they were 4,806 on Wednesday, 4,823 on Tuesday).
The number of patients in intensive care (380) increased slightly compared to the previous day (374).
30,480 people have died in France since the start of the epidemic (i.e. 12 deaths since Wednesday), including 19,969 in hospitals and 10,511 in social and medico-social establishments (a figure which dates from Tuesday and will be updated on August 25 ).
© 2020 AFP