France is still far from reducing the number of its new Covid-19 cases per day to 5,000, and the risk of a strong rebound of the pandemic remains high, the health ministry's top official said on Monday.
"For the last few days, the level of infections has stopped falling," Jérôme Salomon told a press conference.
Two government sources told Reuters that France may have to delay unwinding some Covid-19 lockdown restrictions next week after signs that the downward trend in new infections had flattened out.
Health authorities on Monday reported 3,411 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Sunday's 11,022, but Monday figures tend to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays.
Meanwhile, the number of people hospitalised for the disease increased on Monday for the second day – the first time it has done so in three weeks.
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.
(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)
