French health authorities on Monday reported 3,411 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Sunday's 11,022, but the number of people hospitalised for the disease increased for the second day - the first time it has done so in three weeks.
The Monday figures tend to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays. The seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out weekly data reporting irregularities, stood at 10,489.
France's cumulative number of cases now totals 2,295,908, the fifth-highest tally in the world.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Hugh Lawson)
