France reports over 25,000 new COVID-19 cases, 310 deaths
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E-mail Xinhua, February 18, 2021
PARIS, Feb. 17 (Xinhua) -- France on Wednesday registered 25,018 new COVID-19 infections, while 310 patients died in the past 24 hours.
To date, the country has recorded 3,514,147 people having caught COVID-19, of whom 83,122 have died.
As of Wednesday, a total of 25,974 people with COVID-19 remained hospitalized, down by 265 from the previous day, while 3,350 patients were in intensive care, two more than on Tuesday.
Speaking after a cabinet meeting earlier in the day, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal noted a slight improvement in the country's coronavirus indicators, but warned that it was too early to relax the restrictions.
"The number of new cases decreased by 10 percent this week. The number of hospitalized patients has slightly decreased but it would be unreasonable to ease our efforts and claim victory. ... The virus variants' circulation presents a real threat," Attal said.
"The situation is so fragile that a tiny thing can change it," he warned. "We are taking rapid, proportionate measures adapted to the situation."
Unlike some of its neighbors, France has decided against a new lockdown, betting on a night-time curfew and a strengthened vaccination campaign.
The night-time ban on people's movement, in force since mid-December, was brought forward by two hours in the French territory on Jan. 16 to reduce social mixing.
The French authorities have also tightened border controls, ordered the closure of large shopping malls to reduce people contacts and intensified police patrols to enforce the curfew.
The Health Ministry said on Wednesday that 2,406,172 people had already received the first vaccine shot. In the past 24 hours, 107,742 inhabitants have received the second jab, bringing the total number of people who completed their inoculation to 923,289.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 250 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 69 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 16. Enditem
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