PARIS (Reuters) – The French health ministry on Monday reported the first significant rise in the number of people in hospital due to the new coronavirus since the end of the country’s lockdown, reversing a trend seen since mid-April.
The ministry said the number of people in hospital with COVID-19 had increased by 34 to 5,045 compared with Friday.
It was the first significant increase since the number began falling steadily from a high of 32,292 on April 14.
The number of people in intensive care also increased again, rising by 13 from Friday to 396.
The ministry also reported that the number of confirmed coronavirus infections had risen by 4,854 to 202,775 over the past three days, adding to signs that the virus is spreading more quickly.
After the number of infections set a new post-lockdown high of 2,288, there were 2,184 new infections on Saturday, 1,885 on Sunday and 785 on Monday, the ministry said in separate statements.
The ministry also said that the cumulative death toll from the virus had increased to 30,340, up 16 from Friday, when 12 deaths were reported.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq, Editing by Franklin Paul and Hugh Lawson)
