France reports 22,139 COVID-19 new cases, overall deaths top 78,000

The number of new confirmed coronavirus infections in France slowed for the second day in a row but stood well above the 5,000-case threshold to unwind restrictions, while deaths caused by the epidemic rose to 78,603, the health authorities said on Friday.

A total of 22,139 people tested positive for COVID-19 in France in the past 24 hours, down from 23,448 on Thursday and 26,362 on Wednesday.

The accumulative total of France's confirmed coronavirus cases was nearly 3.3 million, ranking sixth globally after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia, and Britain.

With 651 new COVID-19-linked fatalities reported in the last 24 hours, France became the third European country to report over 78,000 deaths due to COVID-19 following Britain and Italy.

Pressure on the country's hospitals continued to ease with hospital admissions dropped by 194 to 27,614. That included 3,245 people in intensive care units, down from 3,250 on Thursday.

In a report released early Friday, the country's Education Ministry said 105 schools and over 900 classes in France were closed due to the coronavirus. A week ago, COVID-19 cases were detected in 96 schools, forcing the closure of 444 classes.

Over the last seven days, some 12,500 students out of a total of 12.4 million were infected, and 1,808 school staff had caught the virus, it added.

Despite rising concerns over the spread of more contagious virus variants, the French government decided against the closure of schools which according to experts have not been major centers of viral transmission.

Instead, it tightened border control, ordered the closure of large shopping malls to reduce people contacts, and intensified police patrols to enforce the nightly curfew.

A night-time ban on people's movement, in force since mid-December, was brought forward by two hours in the French territory on Jan. 16 to reduce social mixing.

So far, some 1,772,602 people have had the first dose of COVID-19 vaccine, and 189,524 others have received the two jabs, Health Ministry figures showed.

France aims to inoculate all the citizens aged over 65 by the end of May and all adults before September. (/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )