PARIS (Reuters) – New confirmed coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours in France jumped to 13,713 on Tuesday, from 3,411 on Monday and 8,083 last Tuesday, health ministry data showed.
On the 11th day after the government eased a nationwide lockdown, the number of people in intensive care however fell by 110 to 3,088, bringing it closer to a 2,500-3,000 government threshold that is one of the conditions for further lockdown easing.
French President Emmanuel Macron said last month that daily new infections need to fall to around 5,000 and the number of people in ICU to below 3,000 in order to lift the lockdown on Dec. 15.
The number of cases now stands at 2.31 million.
The ministry also reported that the number of people in hospital with the virus fell by 451 to 25,914, after reporting an increase the past two days.
It also reported 831 new coronavirus deaths, including a four-day batch of 454 deaths in retirement homes and 377 deaths in hospitals. On Monday, it reported 366 deaths in hospitals.
(Reporting by GV De Clercq, Editing by Franklin Paul and Jonathan Oatis)
