France Reports Record COVID-19 Numbers

France has set a daily record for the country of 9,000 new coronavirus cases.

France recorded almost 9,000 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, setting a record since the beginning of the pandemic. The health ministry also said that more people were being hospitalised as a result of the disease. In a statement, the ministry said that there had been 8,975 new confirmed cases, almost 1,500 higher than the previous March 31 daily peak of 7,578, at a time when France was in one of Europe’s strictest coronavirus lockdowns.

The surge in parts of France, which is partially due to increased testing, has meant a dozen schools have been forced to close just days into the new academic year.

In addition, there have been 53 new outbreak clusters reported, with 46 patients placed in intensive care which now brings the current total to 473. As of September 1, France has registered 30,661 coronavirus deaths, according to the Sante Publique France health agency, which warned again on Thursday of an “exponential” increase in new cases. It said the “R” rate of viral transmission remains at 1.3 nationwide, meaning 10 infected people are infecting 13 others on average. While more than 90 per cent of fatal cases involve people over 65, “transmission is mainly among young adults”, Sante Publique said.

Fears of a second wave

France has now registered over 300,000  cases and 30,706 deaths. This “second wave” of infections in France is affecting more people than during the first peak of infections in March. At the peak of the epidemic after the initial outbreak, daily infections only crossed the 7,000 marks once. But in the 8 days since 28 August, the 7,000-mark has been surpassed a total of four times. There have been over one million tests carried out in the last week alone, bringing the total number of those tested to more than 8 million – 11 per cent of the population – since the beginning of the pandemic.

With more than 30,000 deaths, France now has the third-highest death toll in Europe, behind the UK and Italy.