France's COVID infections keep rising, hospitalizations up

The seven-day moving average of new cases, which evens out reporting irregularities, reached 65,882, the highest since Feb. 24.

Reuters

Updated On Mar 15, 2022 at 02:37 PM IST

<p>A woman wearing face mask, waits at a bus station, in Paris, France, Monday, March 14, 2022. France has lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, allowing people to remove face masks in almost all places and allowing those unvaccinated back into restaurants, sports arenas and other leisure venues. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)</p> — A woman wearing face mask, waits at a bus station, in Paris, France, Monday, March 14, 2022. France has lifted most COVID-19 restrictions on Monday, allowing people to remove face masks in almost all places and allowing those unvaccinated back into restaurants, sports arenas and other leisure venues. (AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Paris - French health authorities reported 18,853 new COVID-19 infections on Monday, a figure showing a week-on-week increase for the tenth consecutive time on the day France lifted most of the restrictions put in place to contain the pandemic.

The seven-day moving average of new cases, which evens out reporting irregularities, reached 65,882, the highest since Feb. 24.

The number of people hospitalized for COVID-19 rose by 8, to 20,925, a figure still 37% lower than the pandemic peak of 33,497 reached in November 2020. But it has gone up for the second day running, a first since early February. And the week-on-week decrease has been decelerating for nine days.

A change in trend in infections is usually visible two weeks later in hospitalizations figures.

The COVID-19 death toll went up by 185 over 24 hours, the steepest rise in 10 days, to 140,294.