The number of patients hospitalized for Covid-19 continued to increase on Monday, to 26,888, that of patients in intensive care crossing the 3,000 mark for the first time since December 9, according to data from Public Health France.
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French hospitals were thus welcoming 531 patients with Covid-19 more than on Sunday, when their number had crossed the 26,000 mark.
In the intensive care units, which receive the most serious cases, there were 3,031 patients (including 299 who entered in the last 24 hours).
They were 2,803 patients in intensive care a week ago.
This figure, a particularly monitored indicator of the pressure on hospital services, had dropped back below 3,000 on December 10, while the second wave of the epidemic ebbed following the re-containment of the population six weeks earlier.
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Public Health France has also announced 449 deaths in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths caused by the epidemic to 73,498.
As usual at the end of a weekend - when fewer tests are carried out - the contamination figures are low, with 4,240 new cases confirmed since Sunday.
Faced with these figures which do not decrease and the presence on French territory of variants, British and South African in particular, much more contagious, the hypothesis of a third confinement is increasingly raised.
The executive said to wait, for this week, for the verdict on the effects of the 6:00 p.m. curfew put in place almost two weeks ago.
1,092,958 people have received a first dose of vaccine to date since the start of the vaccination campaign, including 66,087 in the past 24 hours.
