PARIS (Reuters) -France’s seven-day moving average of daily COVID-19 deaths fell below 100 for the first time since Oct. 27, official figures showed on Thursday.
And, in another sign that the virus seems finally to be under control a month after the country exited its third lockdown, the number of people in intensive care for the respiratory disease decreased again, by 77 to 2,677.
That figure has more than halved since a peak of 6,001 reached on April 26.
The COVID-19 death toll increased by 70 to 109,828, the eighth-highest total globally. The seven-day moving average stood at 95 versus 105 on Wednesday.
French health authorities reported 8,161 new confirmed cases over 24 hours, taking the total to 5.69 million – the world’s fourth-highest total.
The daily total has now stayed below 10,000 for a fifth straight day, a sequence unseen since early September, and the seven-day moving average of daily new cases fell below 9,000 for the first time since Sept. 19, at 8,350.
(Reporting by GV De Clercq and Benoit Van OverstraetenEditing by Mark Heinrich and David Holmes)
