France's daily coronavirus deaths rebound just before reopening
Although the number of fatalities went up slightly, Friday marked another week of progress in the battle against the novel coronavirus COVID-19. According to the latest numbers reported by the Health Ministry, there were 250 fatalities compared with 188 on Thursday. Deaths in hospitals stood at 118 people while 132 people succumbed to the disease in nursing homes.
- World
- Reuters
- Published Date: 10:04 | 08 May 2020
- Modified Date: 10:04 | 08 May 2020
France's daily coronavirus death toll rebounded on Friday, three days before it starts lifting its almost two-month-old national lockdown.
The Health Ministry said 243 people had died of the respiratory illness COVID-19 in the space of 24 hours, compared 178 on Thursday, for a total of 26,230.
France has the world's fifth highest death toll, after the United States, Britain, Italy and Spain.
The number of people in intensive care units - a measure of the health system's ability to deal with the epidemic - fell by 93 or 3% to 2,868, well below the peak of 7,148 seen on April 8.
The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus also fell again, to 22,724 from 23,208, continuing an uninterrupted three-week fall and down 30% from a peak of 32,292 on April 14.
There were 642 new confirmed cases, compared to 629 the previous day, for a total of 138,421, official data showed.