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Covid-19 in France: More people in hospital, more in ICUs, more dead

By Michael Fitzpatrick - RFI
France Covid-19 in France: More people in hospital, more in ICUs, more dead
SEP 17, 2020 LISTEN

According to the latest update from French daily newspaper Le Monde, the past three days have seen a 43 percent increase in the number of those hospitalised with coronavirus symptoms; the same period has seen the number of patients needing intensive care surge by 34 percent. And the hospital death toll has increased by 17 percent since the start of this week.

As the global toll from coronavirus infection approaches one million deaths, and confirmed cases worldwide are set to pass the 30 million mark, the situation in France continues to deteriorate.

According to the most up-to-date figures from the French public health authorities, 20,517 people have died from Covid-19 in the nation's hospitals, with a further 10,528 deaths in nursing homes. The overall death toll remains impossible to estimate.

Nearly 10,000 new cases have been recorded in the past 24 hours, close to the record number for a single day since the beginning of large-scale testing.

Forty-six people died in hospital yesterday, compared to 37 the previous day.

Numbers testing positive remain stable

With more than one million tests being carried out in France every week, the sharp rise in the number of positive results is no surprise. The percentage of those testing positive has remained stable at 5.4 percent for the past two weeks.

While all important indicators for the epidemic . . . new cases, hospitalisations, emergency admissions and hospital deaths . . . are currently increasing, the figures remain far lower than those at the peak of the epidemic in April.

Most analysts have warned that it is currently difficult if not impossible to speculate on the long-term evolution of the statistics, especially on the risk of a second wave.

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