PARIS (Reuters) – France recorded 3,776 new COVID-19 infections on Wednesday, peaking after the blockade and raising the total to 225,043, but President Emmanuel Macron has re-governed the implementation of the national blockade.
“All signs continue to accumulate and transmission of the virus is expanding among all affected age groups, especially young adults,” the Ministry of Health said in a statement.
He said the virus is active in Paris and Marseille, the two largest cities in and around France.
Some medical experts are involved in the effect of wild, maskless celebrations of Paris St Germain enthusiasts on Champs-Elysies street in central Paris after their football club reached the Champions League final on Tuesday.
Officials from the city of Paris are also involved in the gigantic fan rallies expected on Sunday, when Paris St Germain will play the maximum, either opposite Olympique Lyonnais, a French club, or opposed to Bayern Munich in Germany.
Despite the outbreak of infections, Macron told Paris Match mag in an interview that “local strategies” were preferable to the national blockade, which he says would cause abundant “collateral damage.”
The seven-day moving average of the business count, which eliminates reporting irregularities, is now 2,621, above the 2,500 threshold for the first time since 19 April, when France implemented one of Europe’s strictest blockades.
The number of other hospitalized people decreased from 17 to 4,806 and those of resuscitation from 6 to 374, reflecting the preponderance of other younger people among new cases, more likely asymptomatic or not seriously ill.
Both figures have been in an uninterrupted downward trend since early April, this trend has slowed over the past two weeks.
The death toll rose from 17 to 30,468, after an increase of 22 on Tuesday and 19 on Monday.
Reporting through Benoit Van Overstraeten; Edited through Gareth Jones
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