More than 7,000 new cases of Covid-19 were detected in 24 hours in France, a figure down from the previous two days, when it was close to 9,000 cases per day, according to data released Sunday by Public Health France (SPF ).
7,071 positive cases have been confirmed since Saturday, according to the SPF website.
On Friday, the number of contaminations in 24 hours had peaked at 8,975 cases, a record since the start of the epidemic and large-scale tests in France, and on Saturday, 8,550 cases had still been recorded.
If the number of positive cases has therefore decreased compared to the previous two days, in all, nearly 25,000 new cases were detected in 3 days.
In addition, 58 new "clusters" have been identified since Saturday, out of a total of 528 under investigation, including 214 in nursing homes.
The positivity rate (share of positive cases, among all people tested over 7 days) continues to increase at the same time: it reached 4.9% on Sunday, against 4.3% in the middle of the week.
Finally, 3 additional deaths have been recorded in hospitals over the past 24 hours, or 20,225 in all.
Including the deaths in nursing homes and other social and medico-social establishments, the total toll since the start of the Covid-19 epidemic in France now stands at 30,701 deaths.
The number of patients currently in intensive care has not been specified by SPF, but the organization indicates that 1,704 new hospitalizations have taken place over the last seven days, including 288 for serious cases in reactivity.
28 departments, including 4 overseas, in the red zone
Across the country, seven new departments have moved into the “
active circulation zone
” of Covid-19, or “
red zone
”, bringing to 28 the number of departments where reinforced measures against the virus can be adopted, announced a decree published this Sunday in the Official Journal.
Read also: Covid-19: do Parisians wear the mask?
We counted
The North, the Bas-Rhin, the Seine-Maritime, the Côte-d'Or - four departments which have important agglomerations, the metropolis of Lille, Rouen, Le Havre, Strasbourg, Dijon - the two departments of Corsica (Corsica- South and Haute-Corse) and Reunion Island are affected by these new measures.
28 departments, including four overseas, are now classified in this area according to this decree which comes into force "
immediately
".
Read also: Covid-19 patients and contacts remain free to isolate themselves ... or not
Paris and the Bouches-du-Rhône were the first to be classified as “
red
” from August 14, in view of the intensification of the circulation of the virus.
The transition from a department to an “
active virus circulation zone
”, also called “
red zone
”, means that the prefects have “
enhanced powers
” to take additional measures, depending on “
local epidemiological data
”.
Decision expected on wearing a mask in Strasbourg and Lyon
The Council of State will finally issue its order on Sunday evening or Monday after the State's request to annul decisions by administrative courts of Strasbourg and Lyon asking to relax the general obligation to wear a mask in certain territories.
Administrative justice ordered the Bas-Rhin prefecture on Thursday and the Rhône prefecture on Friday to issue a new decree, excluding places that are not characterized "
by a high population density
" or "
local circumstances likely to promote the spread
”of the coronavirus.
The two courts, seized by two Alsatian hospital practitioners and by the Lyon association "
Les Essentialistes Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes
", also asked the two prefectures to lift the obligation to wear a mask in "
the hourly periods during which no risk particular spread of this virus does not exist
”.
The prefect of the Rhône and the prefect of Bas-Rhin had taken note of the judicial decisions and indicated that they wanted to modify the prefectural decrees before the deadlines set by the courts - Monday at 12 p.m. for Strasbourg, Tuesday at 12 p.m. for Lyon.
But the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, appealed.
See also -
Coronavirus: is it already the second wave?
