PARIS (Reuters) – French health authorities reported on Monday that the number of people in intensive care units with COVID-19 had risen by 92 in the previous 24 hours to 4,219, the highest level since late November.
The health ministry’s Geodes website also reported a provisional 333 new coronavirus deaths in hospitals, compared to 140 on Sunday and a seven-day moving average of 261. The cumulative death toll now stands at 90,762.
Over the weekend, hospitals in the Paris area – which account for more than a quarter of all COVID-19 patients in intensive care units – started transferring patients to other parts of France to reduce pressure on the capital’s health system.
The health ministry also reported 6,471 new COVID-19 cases on Monday, up 4.3% from the previous Monday.
Another 185,000 people had received a vaccination dose over the past 24 hours, the ministry said, increasing the number who have received at least one shot to 5.3 million, or 10.1% of France’s adult population.
Health authorities also said they had stepped up monitoring of a new COVID-19 variant detected in Brittany, western France, but said there were no initial signs of increased transmissibility or severity.
(Reporting by GV De Clercq and Laurence Frost; Editing by Kevin Liffey)
