EPIDEMIC: The coronavirus epidemic continues to rise in France, while the government has just announced a set of restrictive measures to curb it
The Covid-19 indicators worsened further this Thursday with more than 30,000 new cases of contamination in 24 hours, a record number, and daily admissions in intensive care which continue to increase, according to figures from Public Health France.
The number of confirmed cases stands at 30,621, specifies the site of the health agency: a first since the launch of large-scale screening tests. The 20,000 case milestone was crossed on October 9 alone. The test positivity rate (the proportion of positive people out of all those tested) has increased continuously, to 12.6% (12.2% on Wednesday).
Intensive care admissions on the rise
The number of deaths attributable to the disease stands at 88 for the day of Thursday (104 the day before), bringing the total death toll since the start of the epidemic to 33,125. For several days, new admissions to the intensive care units of hospitals have marked a clear increase: 171 patients on Monday, 226 Tuesday, 193 Wednesday and 219 Thursday, according to the SpF database. This indicator is one of the most closely monitored by the authorities, who fear overcrowding of emergency and intensive care services.
The number of Covid-19 patients currently hospitalized in intensive care stands at 1,741, or 77 more than the day before. Health Minister Olivier Véran said Thursday that France had 5,800 intensive care beds.
The daily number of intensive care admissions fell below 200 patients for the last time on April 21st. The highest stood at 771 admissions on April 1st, according to SpF. At the peak of the epidemic, in early April, more than 7,000 patients were hospitalized in intensive care, then the number fell sharply until the end of July. Since then, it has been rising steadily.
