France reports further drop in number of new COVID-19 cases

PARIS (Reuters) – France reported a drop in new COVID-19 infections on Sunday for the fourth day in a row.

Data from the Department of Health showed there were 19,175 new confirmed COVID-19 infections in the past 24 hours, up from 20,586 the day before.

But the data also showed that the number of patients treated in hospital for the disease dropped to 27,694 from 27,369 the day before, after a four-day drop. The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care also increased to 3,272 from 3,225 the day before.

The government has resisted calls for a third national lockdown from health experts who fear more contagious variants of the coronavirus will soon overwhelm hospitals.

The government aims to limit high contamination rates with an evening curfew and stricter rules on foreign travel. His little transport minister 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 increase in cases of a variant coronavirus first detected in Britain.

The variant could represent a majority of new cases from the beginning of March, Arnaud Fontanet, epidemiologist and member of the government advisory body on COVID-19, told Le Journal du Dimanche.

The cumulative death toll in France in hospitals and retirement homes reached 78,965, against 78,794 the day before, according to data from the Ministry of Health.