While government spokesman Gabriel Attal confirmed at the end of the Council of Ministers "a slight but noticeable recovery" of the epidemic, the latest report from Public Health France reports 6,489 Covid-19 patients are hospitalized in the country this Wednesday against 6445 Tuesday and 6465 last Wednesday.
Of these patients, 283 were admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours.
The increase that started recently is continuing.
The number of seriously ill people is also slightly up: with 61 new entries in critical care services, 1,038 people are being cared for on Wednesday in these units reserved for the most severe cases.
They were 1049 the day before and 1026 seven days ago.
In the past 24 hours, 34 people have died after being infected with Covid-19.
Since the start of the epidemic, 117,560 people have died in France.
For the government spokesperson, "the vaccination coverage has something to make us optimistic: more than 80% of eligible French people are fully vaccinated".
It "allows us to hope for better control of the epidemic and even a relatively calm winter, because this vaccine protects very effectively and durably against serious forms", he argued.
He once again called on those over 65 and the most vulnerable to make their second “essential and urgent” recall.