PARIS, December 24 (Reuters) – Health authorities announced on Friday that they had recorded 94,124 new infections with the coronavirus responsible for COVID-19, a level unprecedented since the start of the pandemic.
The seven-day moving average of new infections has tripled in one month and has now reached a record high of 66,417 registered cases.
The Minister of Health, Olivier Vran, had declared on Wednesday that the threshold of 100,000 contaminations per day would finally be reached “closer to Christmas than New Year” and that the fact that the Omicron variant becomes the majority in infections in France was ” maybe 48-72 hours.
Data released Friday by Public Health France show that 3,254 people are currently in critical care, the highest level since May 26. The total number of people hospitalized is 16,173, the highest level since May 31.
Authorities have reported 167 new hospital deaths, bringing the total number of deaths in hospitals linked to COVID-19 to 95,429.
The epidemic wave which is currently facing France remains mainly due to the Delta variant, already present in the territory for many months, but the Omicron variant detected for the first time in southern Africa and Hong Kong is spreading rapidly. (Rdig by Camille Raynaud)