PARIS | The threshold of 140,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 in France was crossed on Friday, two years after the start of the epidemic, according to the organization Public Health France, while the country is experiencing a “rebound” in contaminations since a week.
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Two years almost to the day after the first confinement, the authorities count 140,029 people infected with COVID-19 and died in hospital, retirement homes or other medico-social establishments.
The 130,000 mark had been exceeded on January 27, which means that the fifth epidemic wave took 10,000 patients in six weeks.
In the meantime, the rate of contamination has collapsed, before starting a recovery for a few days. With 72,399 positive cases recorded in 24 hours, the average for the last seven days is back above 60,000, against just over 52,000 a week earlier.
A “rebound” noted Friday by the Minister of Health Olivier Véran and that the epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet links to “a cocktail of factors”: new more contagious variant, back to school and relaxation of behavior, at the approach of a new lifting of restrictions on Monday.
This trend reversal has so far had no effect in hospitals, where the number of COVID patients continues to decline.
Vaccination is also almost at a standstill, with less than 32,000 injections in 24 hours. To date, 54.25 million French people have received at least one dose (i.e. 80.5% of the population), 53.31 million are fully vaccinated (79.1% of the total population), and 39.27 million received a booster dose, according to the Directorate General of Health.
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