Half of the French have received at least a first dose of vaccine against Covid-19, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday.

In hospitals, the number of coronavirus patients continues to decline, even though the threat of the Delta variant raises fears of a recovery.

Half of the French have received at least a first dose of vaccine against Covid-19, the Ministry of Health announced on Tuesday, while the rapid spread of the Delta variant threatens to halt the current decline in the number of patients in hospitals.

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The milestone of 50% of the first-vaccinated population crossed

With 33,690,499 people having received at least a first injection, France crossed the threshold of 50% of the total first-vaccinated population on Tuesday.

A third of the population, or 22,265,100 people, now has a complete vaccination schedule, according to data from the Ministry of Health.

In recent days, the government and health authorities have insisted on the importance of being fully vaccinated to block the Delta variant of the coronavirus, which is more transmissible than other strains.

The decline continues in intensive care units

In hospitals 8,627 Covid patients were registered on Tuesday, including 134 new patients admitted in the past 24 hours, according to data from Public Health France.

They were 8,846 the day before and 10,046 a week before.

Even a decrease in the intensive care units where the most serious cases are treated, with 1,250 hospitalized patients including 29 new admissions in one day.

By way of comparison, the "réa" departments had 1,304 patients the day before and 1,560 seven days earlier.

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In 24 hours, 28 patients died in hospital against 44 a day earlier, bringing the total number of deaths to 111,086 people since the start of the epidemic in March 2020. Regarding contamination, 2,314 new cases have been detected since Monday.

The positivity rate, which represents the number of positive tests compared to all the tests carried out, remains at 0.8% over the last seven days.

Covid: why it is "absolutely normal" to see people infected despite the vaccine