Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) infections in France increased by 9.406 in 24 hours, the French public health service announced on Friday.
This figure was close to the new infections announced by Santé public France on Thursday: 9,483, a record since the start of the pandemic and large-scale testing in France.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in France six months ago, a total of 10 million tests have been administered. The positivity rate – the percentage of people testing positive out of the total number tested – has remained stable at 5.4%.
Between Thursday and Friday, the number of clusters under investigation increased by 106 to 715, including 92 in retirement homes, Santé public France said.
It said 40 persons died in hospital in the latest 24-hour period, bringing total deaths since the start of the pandemic in hospitals, retirement homes and other social and medical establishments to 30,893.
Faced with a “manifest deterioration” of the situation, Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Friday that the time people testing positive for COVID-19 and their contacts need to remain in isolation was being reduced to seven days to increase compliance.
He also asked the prefects of Marseille, Bordeaux and Guadeloupe, where the situation is seen as particularly worrying, to come up with new measures by Monday.
The Brussels Times
