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France has had 10,561 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, health authorities said today, a new daily record, as the number surpassed 10,000 for the first time.
The latest daily count, which surpassed the previous record of 9,843 new infections reported on Thursday, highlights a resurgence of the disease in France.
The increase prompted the government yesterday to outline additional measures to prevent a return to the general blockade established at the beginning of the year. Prime Minister Jean Castex promised measures to speed up testing and tighten local measures in high-infection areas.
Castex warned that there was a “clear worsening” in the country’s outbreak, and that a recent spike in Covid-19 hospitalizations was particularly concerning.
However, it did not announce major new restrictions, shortening the quarantine period for people who contract the virus from 14 to just seven days.
“We have to manage to live with this virus, without going back to the idea of a generalized confinement,” he said in a televised statement from his official residence in Paris.
Castex himself ended a period in isolation after two negative tests for Covid-19.
The fears briefly arose after he spent part of last weekend with Tour de France boss Christian Prudhomme, who tested positive for Covid-19.
In its daily update, the French Ministry of Health also reported that 772 clusters were being investigated, an increase of 86 in the last 24 hours.
During the past week, there were 2,432 hospital arrivals for Covid-19, including 417 entries to intensive care units, the ministry said.
The death toll since the start of the Covid-19 outbreak this year in French hospitals and nursing homes has reached 30,910, with 17 deaths recorded in the last 24 hours, it added.
French ‘yellow vests’ fight with police as Paris protests resume
The latest figures come as French police fired tear gas and arrested more than 250 people in Paris today as they fought with “yellow vest” protesters seeking to revive an anti-government movement held back by the coronavirus lockdown this year.
The “yellow vests,” named after motorists’ high-visibility jackets, emerged in late 2018 in protest against fuel taxes and cost of living, posing a major challenge for President Emmanuel Macron to as the demonstrations spread across France.
By noon today, hundreds of protesters had gathered at the starting points of two authorized marches in Paris.
While one procession proceeded without incident, the other march was aborted when police confronted groups that left the designated route and set fire to garbage containers and a car.
Some protesters wore black clothing and carried the flag of an anti-fascist movement, suggesting the presence of radical protesters dubbed “black blocs” who are often blamed for violence in street marches in France.
Police repeatedly used tear gas to counter small groups of itinerant protesters, before they dispersed towards the end of the afternoon.
Police had made 256 arrests in the early evening, many of them for carrying items such as tools that could be used as weapons.
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