"Containment is not over" and "it is not topical to deconfin the country", warned the Minister of Health, Olivier Véran on Thursday, while the indicators of the Covid-19 epidemic remain at a high level despite a decline that began in recent days.
“We must continue our efforts for as long as necessary to end the epidemic, to defeat the virus.
We did it last spring, we will get there and we will return to a much more normal life afterwards, ”declared the Minister, concluding his weekly press conference.
Live: LIVE - Covid-19: If "the circulation of the virus" slows down, deconfining "is not relevant", warns Olivier Véran
According to the latest figures, unveiled at this press conference by the number 2 of the ministry, Jérôme Salomon, 2,086,288 people have been infected in France since the start of the pandemic.
This represents 21,150 additional cases of contamination in the past 24 hours, against nearly 43,000 last Thursday.
On Thursday, 2,221 Covid patients were hospitalized, including 311 in intensive care, according to the French public health agency.
The number of patients currently in intensive care (the most serious cases) is declining slowly: it is 4,637, against 4,884 last Thursday and 4,759 Wednesday.
In total, 32,314 Covid patients are hospitalized.
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436 hospital deaths in 24 hours
"The total number of deaths since the start of the pandemic in France is 47,127, including 32,597 among hospitalized people and 14,530 among residents in nursing homes and other medico-social establishments," said Professor Salomon.
According to Public Health France, 436 deaths have been reported in hospital in the past 24 hours.
"The indicators are improving, the epidemic dynamic has reduced (...).
But health pressure remains extremely high in our country and our hospitals are still under a very heavy burden in terms of patients, ”commented Olivier Véran.
"It is not because it drops that it is low", he insisted, recalling that the level of contaminations corresponded to that which had motivated mid-October "the establishment of the curfew in a certain number of metropolises ”, before“ the announcement of confinement by the President of the Republic ”.
