French Government Sees Health Crisis Receding, Hospital Workload Down

PARIS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th May, 2021) France has observed a significant decrease in the coronavirus-linked workload of hospitals, as the epidemic seems to be in retreat, government spokesman Gabriel Attal said on Wednesday.

"The epidemic is receding more strongly than last November. The incidence rate has dropped by 20%, the average number of new cases per day is also decreasing and is at its lowest level since January," Attal said at a briefing, adding that numbers of COVID-19 patients in intensive care and hospitals were also falling significantly.

Last month, France entered its third nationwide lockdown for four weeks. Domestic travel between French regions was banned and closures were ordered for schools, non-essential stores, and public facilities.

In late April, Prime Minister Jean Castex noted improvements in the national epidemiological situation and suggested that the peak of the third coronavirus wave had passed.

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Under the national four-phase strategy of gradual lockdown suspension, on May 3 France resumed domestic travel and reopened schools.

The second phase will begin on May 19 and move the nightly curfew from 7 p.m. (17:00 GMT) to 9 p.m. All non-essential stores will reopen, along with public venues and sporting shows, with an 800-person capacity limit indoors and 1,000 people outdoors.

On June 9, the curfew will be further moved to 11 p.m. and the country will reopen to foreign arrivals with special health certificates. The lockdown will be completely over on June 30, according to the plan.

To date, France has detected over 5.8 million COVID-19 cases and more than 100,000 related fatalities.