Earlier on Monday, France extended its nationwide lockdown for another month in a bid to halt the coronavirus pandemic, as other hard-hit countries considered easing their measures with hopes rising that death rates may soon plateau.
Medical staff work in an especially created Post Resuscitation Unit (Unité Post Réanimation Respiratoire) for COVID-19 infected patients (Photo: AFP)
France on Saturday reported 642 more deaths from COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes over the last 24 hours, but registered new falls in the total numbers of coronavirus patients in hospitals and intensive care.
The new deaths — 364 in hospitals and 278 in nursing homes — brought the total count in the country from the epidemic to 19,323, the French health ministry said in a statement.
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However in a continuation of a trend seen over the last days the number of coronavirus patients in hospital fell by 551 to 30,639. The numbers in intensive care meanwhile fell by 194 to 5,833.
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According to the statement, “The fall in the demand for equipment and human resources in intensive care is continuing, but it is still at an exceptional level, far higher than the usual level in France”.
Earlier on Monday, France extended its nationwide lockdown for another month in a bid to halt the coronavirus pandemic, as other hard-hit countries considered easing their measures with hopes rising that death rates may soon plateau.
The details of how the lockdown will be eased have yet to be made clear and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner emphasised that the date was not set in stone and depended on positive trends continuing.
In a televised address to the nation, President Emmanuel Macron said the epidemic was “beginning to steady… (and) hope is returning”.
“May 11 will be the start of a new phase. It will be progressive and the rules can be adapted according to our results”, the president further added.
France reported a slight increase in hospital deaths on Monday — though still below its record numbers of last week — and a slight dip in intensive care patients for a fifth day running.
France has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the epidemic and officials have repeatedly warned it will take time for the measures to bear fruit.
Meanwhile, Spain, which imposed one of the strictest lockdowns in Europe in mid-March, has sought to extend the country’s lockdown by two more weeks.
The Covid-19 related deaths in Italy, the country to have recorded the third-highest number of coronavirus cases in the world, reached 159,510 on Saturday with 23,227 deaths, the second-highest in the world.
The novel coronavirus has infected over 2 million people globally and led to the deaths of over 1,60,000 people.
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