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More than 10,500 coronavirus cases were reported in France on Saturday, a new daily record. The previous record of 9,843 infections was set just two days earlier.
The grim number, 10, 561, serves to underscore the resurgence of the virus in France, as countries across the continent also grapple with increasing numbers of cases and numbers admitted to hospital.
French health authorities reported that 772 clusters were being investigated, an increase of 86 in the last 24 hours.
During the past week, 2,432 people were admitted to the hospital with the virus, including 417 who are in intensive care.
The death toll in hospitals and nursing homes increased by 17 to 30,910 in the last day.
In response to Thursday’s record surge in new cases, the French government outlined additional measures to prevent a return to the general lockdown established earlier in the year.
Prime Minister Jean Castex promised measures to speed up testing and tighten local measures in high-infection areas.
France’s testing capacity last week increased to 1 million per week, compared to just a fraction of what it had at the start of the pandemic. It has run less than 6 million tests in total since the virus first appeared.
Castex, who came out of self-isolation on Saturday after coming into contact with someone infected with the virus, said the pandemic in France “is obviously getting worse.”
“For the first time in many weeks, we are noticing a substantial increase in the number of people hospitalized,” Castex said Friday.
And in Marseille, which has become a hotspot, doctors raised the alarm after all 70 intensive-care beds in the city and the surrounding Bouches-du-Rhone region were occupied on Tuesday.
The number of virus patients in ICUs in the region has doubled in the last 10 days and now exceeds 100.
Hospitals in the region are reactivating the emergency measures implemented when the pandemic first struck and, running out of space, have been forced to place people in units intended for virus-free patients.
“In March, April and May we were able to absorb the epidemic wave by abandoning other hospital care activities, and today what is at stake is to be able to continue treating all the other patients and face the epidemic,” said Laveran Military Training Hospital. the chief physician told The Associated Press, describing it as a battle on two fronts.
Overall, French authorities say they are better prepared this time than in March, when infections skyrocketed and the military stepped in to transport patients and build France’s first peacetime field hospital.
The increase in cases in France has been the subject of comparisons across the Channel, where the UK is witnessing daily infections at a level not seen since May.
England’s chief medical officer Chris Whitty set France as an example to follow as he gave further justification for Boris Johnson’s new “rule of six” restrictions.
Coronavirus cases are rising ‘rapidly’ among young people, warns Chris Whitty
With the help of graphs showing case numbers in the UK, France, Spain and Belgium, Professor Whitty said: “What you can see is that we are following an extremely similar pattern to that followed by France, and in France that rate has continued to increase The same is true in Spain.
“But in Belgium the same kind of chart was happening, but then they took decisive action and at that point rates stabilized and started to go down.
“It is a clear indication that if you act quickly and decisively when these changes occur, there is a good chance that rates will be back in control.”
His comments were echoed by former Sage Senior Scientific Advisor Sir Mark Walport when he warned that the UK was “on the brink of losing control” of the virus.
“You just have to look across the Channel to see what is happening in France, what is happening in Spain,” he told BBC Radio 4. Today Program:
He added: “The short answer is that the only way to stop the spread of this infection is to reduce the number of people we all come in contact with, which reduces risk.”
“It is a very, very fine balancing act, it is very important that young people go back to school, people to university, but it means that we will have to retain our contacts in other areas.”
The professor said he was “definitely” still working from home, adding: “Where people can work from home, there is a very strong argument that they should.”
Additional agency reports
