PARIS (Reuters) – France reported 21,231 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Saturday, slightly more than 20,701 on Friday.
The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 infections rose by 199 to 81,647 – the seventh highest death toll worldwide – from 320 on Friday.
There were 10,037 new patients with the disease in the hospital in the past seven days and 1,795 new admissions to intensive care units (ICUs) during the period, the Ministry of Health said.
Unlike some of its neighbors who are struggling to get more contagious variants under control, France has opposed another lockdown, hoping that a national curfew since December 15, first at 8pm and then at 6pm, will suffice. its to the pandemic.
Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told BFM television on Saturday that the French population was at the end of their patience and that a new lockdown could only be “the last resort if everyone else has been tried”.
However, some scientists believe that President Emmanuel Macron took a gamble by deciding against another lockdown, despite the threat of highly contagious COVID-19 variants.
Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the scientific council who advises the government on COVID-19 policies, told Europe 1 radio on Saturday that he feared the variant first discovered in Britain would take the majority of cases in March could explain.
In the Moselle region, in the east of France, where several cases have increased sharply, the prefecture at least ruled out the closure of the schools or the implementation of a local lockdown requested by some local officials.
The total cumulative number of cases in France has risen to 3,448,617, the sixth highest in the world.
Reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Editing by Angus MacSwan