France reports 21,231 new cases of coronavirus over 24 hours

PARIS (Reuters) – France reported 21,231 new confirmed cases of COVID-19 on Saturday, up from 20,701 on Friday.

The number of people who have died in France from COVID-19 infections has increased from 199 to 81,647 – the seventh highest number of deaths in the world – from 320 on Friday.

There have been 10,037 new patients hospitalized for the disease in the past seven days and 1,795 new intensive care unit (ICU) admissions during the period, the health ministry said.

Unlike some of its neighbors who struggle to control more contagious variants, France has resisted the use of a new lockout, hoping that a national curfew in place since December 15, first at 8 p.m. and then at 6 p.m., will be enough to contain the pandemic.

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on BFM television on Saturday that the French population was at the end of its patience and that a new lockdown could only be “the very last options when all the others have been tried”.

Some scientists believe, however, that President Emmanuel Macron took a gamble by speaking out against a new lockdown despite the threat of highly contagious variants of COVID-19.

Arnaud Fontanet, a member of the scientific council that advises the government on COVID-19 policy, told Europe 1 radio on Saturday that he feared that the variant first detected in Britain was responsible for the majority of case in March.

In the Moselle region, in eastern France, where cases of variants have multiplied, the prefecture has ruled out at least for the moment the closure of schools or the implementation of a local lockdown requested by some local officials.

The cumulative total number of cases in France has risen to 3,448,617, the sixth highest in the world.