PARIS (Reuters) – France on Friday became the sixth country to report a total coronavirus death toll of more than 30,000, with the number of new confirmed cases above 600 for the third day in a row.
The health ministry said in a statement that 25 people had died from coronavirus infection in the past 24 hours, boosting the cumulative total since early March to 30,004.
Friday’s increase compares to an average increase of 15 in the previous seven days. In June, France counted on average 34 new deaths per day, in May 143 and in April 695.
The number of people in hospital with COVID-19 fell by 115 to 7,062, continuing a weeks-long downtrend, and the number of people in intensive care units fell by 16 to 496, the first time the ICU count had fallen below 500 since mid-March.
The number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by 658 to 170,752, the third day in a row with more than 600 new infections, compared to an average of 495 over the past 30 days and 527 over the past seven days.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Chris Reese and Nick Macfie)
