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PARIS (Reuters) – The death toll in France from the coronavirus rose by 348 to 26,991 on Tuesday, beating Spain to become the country with the fourth-highest death toll in the world after the United States, Britain and Italy.
Official data showed that the rate of coronavirus victims in France was very close to Spain for several weeks, with tolls of both countries exceeding 22,000 since April 24 and Spain less than 100 more than those of France for several days a week. pass.
On Tuesday, the United States’ COVID-19 death toll was 80,606, Britain with 32,065 and Italy with 30,911. Spain followed France with 26,920.
On the second day after the relaxation of a strict national blockade to stop the spread of the coronavirus contagion, the government of President Emmanuel Macron reiterated that it was ready to tighten the restrictions again if necessary.
Government coordinator of “deconfinement”, Jean Castex, told lawmakers that the first 36 hours of relaxation had been as planned and that the biggest challenge in maintaining social distance as a bulwark against virus transmission was public transportation in areas densely populated.
“We must consider reversing the end of the blockade. If certain indicators deteriorate, we will tighten the measures again, possibly on a regional basis,” Castex said.
At the end of Monday, the government had already banned alcohol consumption in the popular Canal Saint-Martin area in eastern Paris, where groups of young people eagerly socialized in close contact with each other, against the rules.
The national government also keeps Parisian popular parks closed, such as the Jardin du Luxembourg, despite calls from Mayor Anne Hidalgo to open them to give to Parisians, many of whom live in narrow flats without balconies or terraces, more room to stretch your legs.
The health ministry said in a statement that the number of people in the hospital with COVID-19 infections fell back to 21,595 from 22,284 on Monday, continuing an uninterrupted downward trend that has lasted four weeks.
The number of people in intensive care, a key measure of a health system’s ability to cope with the pandemic, also continued its downward trend, falling 170 or 6.3% to 2,542 from more than 7,000 in early April at the height of the crisis.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases rose from 708 to 140,227 on Tuesday, from 456 on Monday. Including 37,988 probable cases, 94 more, the total number of confirmed and probable cases increased from 802 to 178,225, placing France in sixth place worldwide for this measure.
The government has said it will consider closing the country again if new daily infections exceed 3,000 again. In the past six days, the case count has increased by approximately 670 per day on average.
(Report by Geert De Clercq; Mark Heinrich Edition)
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