The pressure on intensive care units and hospitals in general remained strong Wednesday, according to partial data published by Public Health France.

The TousAntiCovid application also reports 38,501 new Covid-19 contaminations identified over the past 24 hours, against 29,975 on Tuesday.

The number of new Covid-19 contaminations was up sharply on Wednesday to 38,501, while the pressure on the intensive care services decreased very slightly, with 20 patients less than the day before, according to official figures.

According to the government application TousAntiCovid there were 38,501 new contaminations confirmed in 24 hours, against 29,975 on Tuesday.

The site of Public Health France (SpF) was for its part not updated in the evening and it was therefore not possible to have the positivity rate of tests.

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More than 4,200 patients in intensive care

In total, 4,219 patients infected with the coronavirus were in intensive care in hospitals on Wednesday, after a highest Tuesday (4,239) since the end of November 2020. Among them, 357 made their entry in 24 hours, against 435 the day before, according to SpF's Geodes database.

More than a quarter of these intensive care patients (1,161) are hospitalized in Ile-de-France.

The pressure is down very slightly, with 16 fewer patients on shifts than on Tuesday, but the particularly worrying situation is pushing the health authorities to try to organize transfers to other regions.

The situation is also tense in Provence-Alpes-Côte-d'Azur and in Hauts-de-France, regions which respectively have 513 (+2) and 512 (-14) patients in intensive care.

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With 1,745 new hospitalizations in 24 hours across the country, there are now 25,314 Covid patients in hospitals in France, against 25,492 on Tuesday.

Vaccinations continued to progress, despite the suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Monday, pending a review by the European Medicines Agency of possible adverse effects associated with this vaccine.

A total of 5,585,537 people received at least one injection and 2,349,027 received two doses.