The target of 5,000 daily Covid-19 cases set by the government to lift lockdown measures on December 15 is appearing to drift further away each day: 14,595 positive cases were recorded in France this Wednesday, December 9, according to official figures. This is the highest total since November 25 (16,200).
Over the past seven days, the daily average of new positive cases is about 11,000, which is more than double the symbolic threshold of 5,000 set by the government.
In total, 25,526 patients are hospitalized due to Covid as of Wednesday, compared to 25,882 the previous day. On Monday, there were 26,333.
The number of patients in intensive care (i.e., the most severe cases) continues to decrease slightly, at 3,031, compared to 3,078 the previous day and 3,478 a week ago.
170 patients were admitted to intensive care units this Wednesday. The second criterion set by the executive to lift travel restrictions is to reduce the number of intensive care patients to a range between 2,500 and 3,000.
According to Santé Publique France, 296 new deaths in 24 hours at the hospital were reported this Wednesday, a figure lower than the previous day (380). This brings the total death toll from Covid-19 to 56,648 since the start of the epidemic.
Finally, the positivity rate (the proportion of positive tests compared to the total number of tests) is 6.4%. However, it cannot be compared to the approximately 11% of recent days because Santé Publique France has changed its calculation methods since Tuesday.*
