The epidemic paradox continues. While Covid-19 contaminations continue to increase in France, approaching 11,000 new cases this Saturday, hospitalizations continue their slight decrease, according to figures from
Public health France. A total of 10,949 people tested positive for the virus within 24 hours. Friday, this figure was returned above the 10,000 mark for the first time since the end of May, with 10,908 new cases identified.
The positivity rate, (percentage of people tested positive out of all those who performed a test), remained stable on Saturday compared to the day before, at 1.6%. The highly contagious Delta variant is responsible for the vast majority of new cases in France, health authorities had previously indicated.
The decline is slowing in hospitals
As for hospitals, Public Health France identified 6,922 patients on Saturday (6,971 Friday), of which 114 were admitted in the last 24 hours. If this number of hospitalizations returned for the first time on Friday since the beginning of October below the 7,000 mark, the decline that began at the end of April has slowed down for several days. Critical care services, in charge of the most serious cases, recorded a slight decrease, with 890 patients (including 21 admissions), against 899 the day before.
The disease has killed 16 people in 24 hours, bringing the total death toll to 111,496 since the start of the epidemic in March 2020. Since the start of the vaccination campaign, 37,414,557 people have received at least one injection ( or 55.5% of the total population) and 30,191,338 people are now fully vaccinated, or 44.8% of the total population.