Seven more major cities in France have been placed on high alert as the country recorded a sharp surge in cases.
French authorities announced that cities such as Lille, Strasbourg and Dijon are now considered "red zones" as exceptional measures can now be introduced in the cities to slow the spread of Covid-19.
It brings the total number of high risk areas in France to 28.
The Sante Publique France health agency said over the weekend that 53 new outbreaks of Covid-19 clusters had been discovered in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of investigations to 484.
Friday’s case peak of 8,975 set a new all-time high of daily additional infections. But, at the same time, the number of people who have died from Covid-19 increased by just three to 30,701. The cumulative number of cases now totals 309,156.
The number entering hospital over the last seven days reached 1,704, of which 288 were in intensive care units.
“Despite the sharp rise in cases, daily deaths and hospital figures are relatively stable,” said a health ministry spokesman.
“This is primarily because young people, who are less vulnerable to the disease, make up most of the new infections,” he added.
Wide-scale testing and tracing, compulsory mask wearing and people being encouraged to work from home are among the measures being used to combat Covid-19 in France.
It began easing its eight-week lockdown in May. The increased number of coronavirus cases among young people came as some 12 million school pupils returned to class last week.
Since then, the education ministry has closed 22 schools in mainland France and its overseas territories due to outbreaks. In another sign of the worsening situation, a retirement home in the southern Aveyron department announced yesterday that 43 residents and 11 staff were infected.
Compulsory testing for those arriving from high-risk countries has been in operation at France’s international airports since August 1.
The list of countries includes the US, Israel and Serbia, but not the UK. This is despite Britain imposing a 14-day quarantine period on anyone arriving from France.
