While colleges and high schools again welcomed their students in semi-gauges Monday, April 3, the Minister of Health assessed the decrease in the circulation of the epidemic of "
20 to 25% each week
".
Asked about Europe 1, Olivier Véran estimated that "
in two weeks, we should be between 15,000 to 20,000 cases per day
".
Indeed, France has been following a downward trend in the epidemic for a week with 23,456 new contaminations recorded on Friday April 30 against 29,503 a week earlier.
Or a decrease of 20%, even if it is a bit early to talk about an underlying trend.
Number of new Covid-19 contaminations in France since March.
CovidTracker
A slow decline in the epidemic which is also observed in intensive care services.
After having exceeded the mark of 6,000 patients in intensive care last week, their number is just above 5,600 on Monday, May 3, according to the latest report from Public Health France.
Or a decrease of 7%.
As for the number of deaths, it remains stable, between 300 and 400 daily victims.
Read also: Covid-19: is the virus circulating less in France?
To the reproach, formulated by Doctor Philippe Juvin, last Friday, indicating that the government was ready to gradually lift the health measures with figures which had pushed it to confine the country a few months earlier, Olivier Véran replied that "
what matters is not the level of contamination but the epidemic dynamic
"on the decline.
The Minister hopes to build on this development to reprogram hospital care which in some establishments has been canceled up to 80%.
"
There are still too many patients in intensive care to resume a rhythm of classic care, but in the coming weeks, their number will drop and we will be able to do it
", added Olivier Véran.
To meet these objectives, he invites the French not to relax their efforts.
"
They must not consider that they are out of danger and that the epidemic is over
", he added, specifying that the first means to achieve this was "
a massive vaccination of vulnerable French people
», Open since last Saturday to all French people over the age of 18 with co-morbidities.
A necessary condition to foresee the end of barrier gestures including the wearing of a mask outside that the Minister of Health hopes "
by the summer
".
