The French health directorate sounded the alarm tonight after a worrying spike in Covid-19 cases. There were 1,130 new cases in 24 hours, after over 1,000 on Wed-Thurs and almost 1,000 Tues-Wed. The daily average has been creeping up but was around 500 until a week ago. 1/5
The health directorate general (DGS) called on the French to re-impose “collective discipline” after relaxing their guard since the holiday period began and lockdown ended fully on 2 June. The DGS said France “risked reversing a large part of the progress” it had made. 2/5
The French health ministry had already warned on Thursday that cases were rising and the spike could not be attributed to increased testing alone. Worryingly, many of the new cases are amongst the elderly, including in care homes. 3/5
There is a concentration of new cases in some areas previously spared, such as Finistere in the far west of Brittany, but there is also a rise of new cases in the greater Paris area. 4/5
Other stats remain encouraging but could start to be reversed soon. There were 10 hospital Covid-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, bringing the French total to 30,192. Intensive care cases fell by 26 to 410 (compared to 7,200 at the French peak in early April). 5/5
