While the government has just presented the French with a detailed timetable for a gradual lifting of the latest restrictions, hospitals continue to receive more and more people hospitalized with Covid-19.
Currently, according to the French public health agency, 27,931 people are hospitalized with a positive Covid diagnosis, a figure which has been rising steadily since the start of the year as contaminations soar against the backdrop of an explosion of the Omicron variant.
The country's hospitals had 27,230 patients on Wednesday, 24,154 seven days ago.
Over the past 24 hours, 3,053 people have been admitted to hospital.
This latest figure is higher than a week earlier (2,513), a sign that the pressure does not seem to be easing for the hospital as a whole.
On the other hand, the situation is easing for the critical care services, which house the most serious cases.
They currently welcome 3842 people, a figure that has been slowly declining for several days (3852 Wednesday, 3939 last Thursday).
In the past 24 hours, these services have recorded 301 admissions.
As for several days, this figure is down from a week earlier (334).
More than 128,000 dead
The Omicron variant is much more contagious than its predecessors but it also gives less severe forms, which translates in particular into shorter hospital stays and less frequent admissions to intensive care.
In the past 24 hours, 425,183 positive cases have been recorded, compared to 436,167 the day before.
In addition, Public Health France indicates this Thursday that 525,527 people tested positive on Monday, according to data by date of sampling known at D+3, a record.
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The epidemic has caused the death of 251 people in 24 hours, according to data from authorities published on Tuesday, bringing the total number of deaths in France since the start of the pandemic, almost two years ago, to 128,173.
In the field of vaccination, 53,731,886 million people have received at least one injection (79.7% of the total population) and 52,403,632 million now have a complete vaccination schedule (i.e. 77.7% of the total population ).
Some 33,078,821 million people received a booster dose.
