PARIS (Reuters) – France reported a drop in new COVID-19 infections on Sunday for the fourth consecutive day.
Data from the Department of Health showed that there were 19,175 new confirmed COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, compared to 20,586 the day before.
But the data also showed that the number of patients treated in hospital for the disease had increased to 27,694 from 27,369 the previous day, after a decrease of four days. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care has also risen, from 3,225 the day before to 3,272.
The government has opposed calls for a third nationwide ban on health experts who fear more contagious variants of coronavirus could soon overwhelm hospitals.
The government is aiming to curb the high rates of infection through a curfew and stricter rules for foreign travel. The junior minister of Transport said on Sunday that a ban on non-essential travel to and from destinations outside the European Union had halved the number of air passengers in a week.
But doctors are particularly concerned about the increasing cases of a coronavirus variant first discovered in Britain.
The variant could represent a majority of new cases from early March, Arnaud Fontanet, an epidemiologist and member of the government’s advisory body on COVID-19, told Le Journal du Dimanche newspaper.
The cumulative death toll in hospitals and nursing homes in France is 78,965, compared to 78,794 the day before, according to data from the Ministry of Health.
Reporting by Gus Trompiz and Caroline Pailliez; Edited by Alison Williams and Timothy Heritage