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Covid-19: France records almost 30,000 new cases

By RFI
France  AP - Jean-Francois Badias
OCT 19, 2020 LISTEN
© AP - Jean-Francois Badias

France recorded close to 30,000 new Covid-19 cases on Sunday bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 897,034 since the start of the epidemic. 

According to the French Public Health agency, 29,837 new cases of Covid-19 were identified in the past 24 hours with 85 people dying due to the disease. The total death toll in France since the start of the epidemic stands at 33,477. 

The agency stated that the positivity rate of testing stands at 13.2 percent. 

Meanwhile, starting Saturday night, nine metropolitan regions in France have been subjected to a night-time curfew for at least one month to curb the spread of Sars-Cov-2. The measures, which are part of a renewed health state of emergency could be extended to six weeks. 

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday announced that a curfew from 9pm-6am would be put in place in Ile-de-France (Paris and its 7 surrounding departments), Lille, Lyon, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne, Aix-Marseille, Toulouse, Montpellier and Rouen. 

France has been placed under a health state of emergency in a bid to slow down the Covid-19 epidemic. 

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