While the WHO warned earlier during the day that the pandemic was "far from over", the increase in contamination observed since the start of the school year is confirmed this Wednesday.
Public Health France has recorded 69,190 new cases of Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, compared to 93,050 the day before and 57,697 a week ago.
It is the fifth day in a row that the number of contaminations is up compared to the same day of the previous week.
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At the hospital, the numbers continue to drop.
Public Health France has identified 21,509 hospitalized Covid-19 positive patients.
They were 21,899 on Tuesday and 23,840 on March 2, a drop of -10% over one week.
Among them 1,962 patients are in critical care this Wednesday, against 2,036 on Tuesday and 2,329 seven days ago (-16%).
It is also the first time since December 2 that this figure has fallen below the 2,000 patient mark.
Two bars reached tonight 📉
• less than 2,000 #Covid patients in critical care (first time since December 2)
• less than 100 #Covid patients admitted to critical care every day (first time since November 18)
[zoomed out version in bottom]
1/5 pic.twitter.com/Xyv6p6ddOG
— Nicolas Berrod (@nicolasberrod) March 9, 2022
The most significant drop over a week, however, remains those of new daily admissions to critical care (-25%): Public Health France identified 120 new admissions this Wednesday against 125 the day before and 153 last week.
1,147 new patients with Covid-19 have been admitted to hospital in the past 24 hours, down from the previous day (1,312) and last Wednesday (1,249).
In addition, 136 new deaths raise the death toll to more than 139,543 since the start of the pandemic in France.
The Ministry of Health also reports on Wednesday that a total of 54.24 million French people have received at least one dose (i.e. 80.5% of the population), 53.30 million are fully vaccinated (79.1% of total population), and 39.2 million received a booster dose.