PARIS (Reuters) -The number of people in intensive care with COVID-19 in France set a 2021 low on Friday, falling below the level reached after the end of France’s second lockdown in November.
The health ministry reported that the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU had fallen by 106 to 2,571 as France unwinds its third nationwide lockdown, having hit a high of 6,001 on April 26.
Following the November lockdown, when the number of COVID-19 patients in ICU peaked at nearly 5,000, it took until Jan.7 for the ICU count to fall to 2,582, after which it started slowly rising again.
France also reported 6,953 new confirmed COVID-19 cases on Friday, the sixth consecutive day the number remained below 10,000, which had not happened since early September 2020.
The country registered 88 new deaths from the disease, with the seven-day moving average falling to 89, the lowest since mid-October.
France reported just seven new deaths in retirement homes for the past three days and the seven-day moving average fell to just two – the lowest level since mid-summer 2020 – as France has vaccinated nearly 100 percent of the residents in those homes.
(Reporting by Geert De ClercqEditing by Mark Heinrich, Kirsten Donovan)
