By Damon Mitchell • Published: 15 May 2020 • 21:01
FRANCE’S health ministry announced the death toll from the coronavirus rose by 104 to 27,529 in the last 24 hours, as the number of patients in hospital and in intensive care units continued to drop.
The number of people in hospital with Covid-19 infections fell again to 19,861 from 20,463 on Thursday, continuing an uninterrupted downward trend now in its fifth week.
The number of people in intensive care – a key measure of a health system’s ability to cope with the pandemic – also continued its downtrend, falling by 96 to 2,203, from more than 7,000 in early April at the height of the crisis.
Both figures are welcome news for the government, which has begun lifting lockdown measures this week in an effort to revive a flagging economy.
The French government has warned it will consider locking down the country again if daily new infections rise above 3,000. On Friday, the number of infections increased by 563 to 141,919, up 0.4 per cent and the ninth consecutive day that the case tally rose by about half a percentage point or less.
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From the interviewed to the interviewer
As frontman of a rock band Damon used to court the British press, now he lives the quiet life in Spain and seeks to get to the heart of the community, scoring exclusive interviews with ex-pats about their successes and struggles during their new life in the sun.
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