France has reported 547 deaths in hospitals and nursing homes from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours as the number of new hospitalisations continued a slow decline.

France – which on Monday became the fourth country to record more than 20,000 deaths as a result of the pandemic and has the fourth-highest toll in the world – has been in virtual lockdown for nearly five weeks and is due to start lifting some confinement measures from May 11.

“Tonight, our country has passed a barrier that is symbolic and particularly painful,” top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters, announcing a total death toll of 20,265 people while welcoming new falls in the numbers in hospital and intensive care.

The 547 new deaths reported – including 444 in hospital and 103 in nursing homes – marked an increase over the previous 24 hours.

Salomon, however, highlighted other welcome signs that the virus curve had passed its peak. He said 5,683 patients were receiving intensive care for the virus on Monday, down from a peak of 7,148 on April 8. Hospitalisations likewise continued a near week-long decline.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe told a news conference on Sunday that falls in the number of people in intensive care were one of the encouraging signals that pressures on hospitals were easing.

But he shut down any expectations that the gradual exit from confinement in May, due to start with the reopening of schools, would allow people to move around or interact as before, especially as a vaccine against the virus was still far off.

“It won’t be a return to normal life,” Philippe said, adding that as France introduces more testing, people with coronavirus would have to remain isolated at home or in hotels laid on by the government. “From May 11, we will enter a second phase, when we will regain some of our freedoms.”

The French state has given few details yet of the pace at which businesses like cinemas or bars will reopen, only saying that as some stores open up again, people will have to maintain safe distances from each other.

France will, however, lift its ban on visits to nursing home residents, provided people did not touch their relatives, Health Minister Olivier Véran told the same briefing. Elderly people in nursing homes account for nearly 40% of the coronavirus fatalities in the country.

The government has come under fire in recent weeks after shortages of medicines, hospital equipment such as ventilators and face masks for doctors as well as front line workers in sectors like supermarkets added to problems in handling the crisis.

Philippe said that in the past week France had managed to import just under 81 million masks, exceeding for the first time “in a long time” its weekly needs of about 45 million.

By June, France will also have secured and produced 15,000 more ventilators for resuscitation units in hospitals and another 15,000 less heavy-duty versions – helping it exceed its projected needs.

“That will not only allow us to secure our situation, but thereafter to also mobilise some ventilators to help France’s allies internationally,” Philippe said.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS and AFP)

Germany takes its first steps back towards normality on Monday, with smaller shops in some regions opening up for the first time in a month after politicians declared the coronavirus “under control”.

From florists to fashion stores, the majority of shops smaller than 800 square metres (8,600 square feet) will be allowed to welcome customers again, in a first wave of relaxations to strict curbs on public life introduced last month.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and regional state premiers announced the decision to reopen last week, though they have been careful to cast it as no more than a cautious first step.

While the first shops will open their doors on Monday, each of Germany’s 16 states is set to lift the restrictions at a slightly different pace.

In some states such as the capital Berlin, reopening will take a little longer.

Merkel, who has been praised for her handling of the coronavirus crisis, is hoping to reinvigorate the ailing German economy, which officially entered into recession last week.

‘Fragile’

With 139,897 confirmed cases and 4,294 deaths as of Sunday, Germany has been one of the countries worst hit by COVID-19, but also one of the quickest to react.

On Friday, the Robert Koch Institute for public health announced that the rate of infection — the number of people each ill person contaminates — had dropped below one for the first time, leading Health Minister Jens Spahn to declare the virus “under control”.

Yet Merkel, who was herself quarantined for two weeks earlier this month before testing negative for the virus, has warned that Germany’s success remains “fragile”.

“We will not be able to go back to our normal lives for a long time,” said her conservative party colleague Armin Laschet, the state premier of North-Rhine Westphalia, the country’s most populous region.

In an interview with Der Spiegel weekly, Laschet warned that some coronavirus restrictions could last until 2021.

A ban on gatherings of more than two people and a requirement to stand more than 1.5 metres apart from others in public areas remain in force.

That means that hairdressers, initially deemed an essential business, cannot open until at least May 4.

Cultural venues, bars, leisure centres and beauty salons will also remain closed for the time being, while large-scale public events such as concerts and football matches have been banned until August 31.

But Germans can look forward to at least some relaxations to the existing shutdown although they have not been welcomed by everyone.

With larger shops unable to open, the German Trade Association warned Friday of a possible “distortion of competition”.

Yet Economy Minister Peter Altmaier defended the 800-square-metre limit, saying that “the belt can only be loosened bit by bit”.

Schools reopening

Schools will also be partially reopened in the coming weeks, with most states set to welcome back older students from May 4.

Education policy is traditionally decided at state level in Germany, and Bavaria, the region worst hit by the virus so far, will keep its schools closed for an extra week.

On April 29, regional education ministers are set to present concrete plans on how social distancing can still be enforced in the classroom.

Germany hopes to combine the lifting of restrictions with a more efficient tracing of the spread of COVID-19.

The country hopes to ramp up testing — it has already tested around two million people — and aims to produce around 50 million protective masks, including 10 million of the higher efficiency FFP2 standard a week from August.

Though not yet obligatory, Merkel said her government “strongly advises” wearing a mask in public.

With more movement of the population expected as shops reopen, eastern states Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Saxony have made masks obligatory on public transport.

In doing so, they have followed the example of the eastern city of Jena, which unilaterally enforced the wearing of masks earlier this month.

According to German media, the city has had no new cases in a week.

Source: AFP

The death toll from the coronavirus in Spain, one of the countries hardest hit by the pandemic, moved past 20,000 on Saturday, the health ministry said.

A total of 20,043 people have now succumbed to the disease, which killed 565 people in Spain in the past 24 hours, slightly down on the 585 reported on Friday.

Spain is the second worst-hit country in Europe behind Italy but has tentatively begun to ease a strict lockdown imposed on March 14, opening up some sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, earlier this week.

Shops, bars, restaurants and other social gathering places remain shuttered.

Peak passed?

Health officials say Spain has passed the peak of the Covid-19 outbreak which killed up to 950 people on April 2, and the pressure has eased on hospitals.

But the toll, which covers only people who tested positive for the virus, is increasingly contested in some regions.

How long will lockdowns last?

Officials there say thousands more people have died after showing symptoms of the disease without having been tested because there are not enough tests.

For example, Catalonia has reported that more than 7,800 people have died while the national toll for the region referred Saturday to more than 3,800. Since March 14, Spain has been under one of the strickest lockdowns in Europe that has been extended until April 25 and could be prolonged even futher.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and REUTERS)

Italian health officials declared victory Friday over the coronavirus in the poorer southern regions, where hospitals had been stretched to breaking point under the strain of the pandemic.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte had warned six weeks ago that Italy’s ability to conquer COVID-19 depended on whether cases can stay largely contained to the richer north.

The disease has now officially claimed 22,745 lives in the Mediterranean country of 60 million people — a toll second only to the United States.

But Italy has still counted itself relatively lucky because the outbreak erupted in provinces with the best equipped medical staff around the financial capital Milan.

Conte decided to gamble early by imposing the Western world’s first peacetime national lockdown, in the first half of March.

His team argued that the short-term economic pain would pay off by saving the health care system and allowing the country to gradually reopen in the weeks to come.

Italy’s top health officials said Friday that Conte’s big bet had paid off.

“We have prevented the spread of contagions in southern regions,” public health council chief Franco Locatelli told reporters.

“This is now a fact supported by figures.”

Levelling off              

The latest data from Italy’s civil protection service offered new reasons for Conte not to extend some of the strictest restrictions when they expire on May 4.

They showed the number of people currently being treated for COVID-19 rising by only a few hundred for the first time since the outbreak began.

The current number of cases had been going up by at least 1,000 a day for over a month.

But they edged up by just 11 outside Milan’s Lombardy region on Friday.

“In absolute terms, we have had had the highest number of recoveries since the start of the crisis,” civil protection service chief Angelo Berrelli told reporters.

The generally improving picture prompted the civil protection service to announce that it was suspending daily briefings and moving to a twice-a-week format.

New tolls will still be issued daily.

Standoff

The leaders of Italy’s northern industrial heartland are pushing Conte to take another gamble and open as many businesses and industries as possible in early May.

The shutdown has devastated once-booming factory towns and left millions furloughed or temporarily unemployed.

Italy’s central bank said industrial production had declined by 15 percent in March and total economic output was set to contract by five percent in annual terms between January and March.

But a standoff is emerging between the northern leaders and those south of Rome.

Naples’s Campania governor Vincenzo De Luca warned Friday that he may have to “close our borders” to people from the north should those regions’ stay-at-home orders be lifted.

The scale of business reopening will be determined by the number of deaths and recoveries reported over the coming days.

Italy is still digging though data from individual regions to determine the true impact of its worst disaster since World War II.

Previously undisclosed figures from its public health institute revealed that nearly 17,000 medics have been infected with the virus since Italy’s first COVID-19 death was recorded on February 21.

Several Italian doctors have expressed fears that infected health care workers may have been unwittingly spreading the disease to their patients in the early weeks of the outbreak.

A study released Thursday by the FNOMCeO medical association said COVID-19 has killed 125 doctors in Italy.

(AFP)

Germany has drawn up a list of steps, including mandatory mask-wearing in public, limits on gatherings and the rapid tracing of infection chains, to help enable a phased return to normal life after its coronavirus lockdown is set to end on April 19.

Germany on Wednesday unveiled plans to lift some restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, becoming the first major European nation to take on the delicate task of reopening without triggering a new wave of infections.

As US President Donald Trump came under increasing fire for ordering a freeze on American funding for the World Health Organization, the Group of 20 (G20) announced a one-year debt moratorium for the world’s poorest nations.

The number of COVID-19 cases around the globe soared past two million, meanwhile, according to an AFP tally, and the death toll topped 131,000.

Germany was the largest of several European countries announcing tentative steps on Wednesday to reopen their economies and societies.

Denmark began reopening schools for younger children after a month-long closure and Finland lifted a two-week rail and road blockade on the Helsinki region.

Lithuania said it would allow smaller shops to reopen from Thursday.

Other countries are also tweaking confinement rules, with Iran set to let some small businesses reopen and India allowing millions of rural people to return to work.

In South Korea, people went to the polls on Wednesday and delivered a strong show of support for President Moon Jae-in, commending his handling of the epidemic.

Once home to the world’s second-largest outbreak, South Korea has largely brought the virus under control through widespread testing, contact-tracing and social distancing.

Yet a full-scale return to normality still appears a long way off in most other countries.

Harvard scientists have warned that repeated periods of social distancing could be needed as far ahead as 2022 to avoid overwhelming hospitals.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who has allowed work to restart in some factories and building sites, warned that “nothing will be the same until a vaccine is found.”

Belgium extended its stay-at-home order until at least May 3 and banned mass gatherings until the end of August.

‘Extreme caution’

In Germany, Chancellor Angela Merkel announced first steps in undoing coronavirus restrictions that have plunged the economy into a recession.

Most shops will be allowed to open once they have “plans to maintain hygiene” although schools must stay closed until May 4 and a ban on large public events will remain in place until August 31.

“We have to proceed with extreme caution,” Merkel told reporters in Berlin.

Schools will gradually be reopened with priority given to pupils about to take leaving examinations.

And the government urged people to wear face masks when out shopping or on public transport, but stopped short of making it a requirement like in neighbouring Austria.

Offering a lifeline for the world’s poorest countries, the G20 — a group of the world’s leading economies — said it would temporarily suspend debt repayments from the most impoverished nations.

The reprieve will free up more than $20 billion for those countries to focus on the pandemic and will last at least a year, according to Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan.

But the global economic outlook remains gloomy, with Germany already in recession and US industrial output declining by 6.3 percent — its biggest fall in seven decades.

More than a third of French workers are on temporary unemployment, the government said.

The virus death toll topped 17,000 in France but in a hopeful sign hospitalizations went down for the first time.

On the horizon looms the worst economic downturn in a century, which the IMF has said could see $9 trillion wiped from the global economy.

‘Lessons’

As the world tries to chart a way out of the crisis, Trump came in for criticism for his freeze on payments to the WHO, the UN’s health agency.

“No doubt, areas for improvement will be identified and there will be lessons for all of us to learn,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.

UN chief Antonio Guterres condemned Trump’s move while billionaire Bill Gates, a major WHO contributor, tweeted that cutting funding was “as dangerous as it sounds.”

European allies were similarly disapproving and Washington’s rivals also took aim — Russia condemning the “selfish approach” of the US, and China and Iran blasting the decision.

Trump accused the WHO on Tuesday of “severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus” and said it could have been contained if the organisation had accurately assessed the situation in China late last year.

As European nations made tentative moves to open up, in poorer and more densely populated countries, governments are still struggling to enforce restrictions on movement that are piling misery on the needy.

Fears over hunger and possible social unrest are especially acute in parts of Africa and Latin America.

In Cape Town, clashes erupted Tuesday as police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at residents protesting access to food aid.

A similar crisis is taking hold in Ecuador, where hunger trumps fear of the virus for residents in rundown areas of the badly affected city of Guayaquil.

“The police come with a whip to send people running, but how do you say to a poor person ‘Stay home’ if you don’t have enough to eat?” said Carlos Valencia, a 35-year-old teacher.

(AFP)

Spain and Austria allowed partial returns to work on Tuesday but Britain, France and India extended lockdowns to rein in the new coronavirus while the United States, where the death toll exceeded 25,000, debated how to reopen its economy.

The World Health Organization (WHO) warned that infections had “certainly” not yet peaked.

Nearly 2 million people globally have been infected and more than 124,000 have died in the most serious pandemic in a century, according to a Reuters tally.

The epicentre has shifted from China, where the virus emerged in December, to the United States, which has now recorded the most deaths.

World leaders, in considering easing curbs, have to balance risks to health and to the economy as the lockdowns have strangled supply lines, especially in China, and brought economic activity to a virtual halt.

The shutdown is costing the U.S. economy perhaps $25 billion a day in lost output, St. Louis Federal Reserve President James Bullard said, calling for widespread testing and risk management strategies so the economy can restart.

President Donald Trump, who has declared he will decide when to lift lockdowns, suggested some Democratic state governors were “mutineers” after New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said he would refuse any order that risked reigniting the outbreak.

The White House said Trump would hold a video teleconference with leaders from the Group of Seven nations on Thursday to coordinate responses.

The global economy is expected to shrink by 3% this year, the International Monetary Fund said, marking the steepest downturn since the Great Depression.

The WHO said the number of new cases was tailing off in some parts of Europe, including Italy and Spain, but outbreaks were growing in Britain and Turkey.

“The overall world outbreak – 90 percent of cases are coming from Europe and the United States of America. So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” WHO spokeswoman Margaret Harris told a briefing in Geneva.

But world stocks gained after Chinese trade data came in better than expected and as some countries partly lifted restrictions.

Some Spanish businesses, including construction and manufacturing, were allowed to resume. Shops, bars and public spaces are to stay closed until at least April 26.

Spain was flattening the curve on the graph representing the rate of growth of the outbreak, Health Minister Salvador Illa said on Tuesday. The overnight death toll from the coronavirus rose to 567 on Tuesday from 517 a day earlier, but the country reported its lowest increase in new cases since March 18. Total deaths climbed to 18,056.

Some Spanish workers expressed concern that the relaxation of restrictions could trigger a new surge of infections. But for Roberto Aguayo, a 50-year-old Barcelona construction worker, the restart came just in time.

“We really needed it, just when we were going to run out of food we returned to work,” he told Reuters.

Italy, which has the world’s second highest death toll at 21,067, maintained some tight restrictions on movement, while Denmark, one of the first European countries to shut down, will reopen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade on April 15.

The Czech government will gradually reopen stores and restaurants from April 20, although people will continue to be required to wear masks.

Thousands of shops across Austria reopened on Tuesday, but the government cautioned that the country was “not out of the woods”.

Austria acted early to shut schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places about four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home.

The Alpine republic has reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. Hospitalisations have stabilised.

Lockdowns extended

Britain, where the government has come under criticism for its slow approach to testing and for not getting protective equipment to the frontlines of health care, has the fifth-highest death toll globally.

The toll in British hospitals rose to 12,107 as of Monday but is expected to be much higher when deaths in the community are included. Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab has said there would be no easing of lockdown measures when they come up for review this week.

The Times newspaper said on Tuesday that Raab, deputising for Prime Minister Boris Johnson who is recuperating from a COVID-19 infection, would extend the curbs until at least May 7.

In France, President Emmanuel Macron on Monday extended a virtual lockdown to May 11.

India, the world’s second-most populous country after China, extended its nationwide lockdown until May 3 as the number of coronavirus cases crossed 10,000.

Neighbours Pakistan and Nepal also extended their curbs.

Russia might need to call in the army to help tackle the crisis, President Vladimir Putin said on Monday. Moscow warned the capital might run out of hospital beds in coming weeks.

China’s northeastern border province of Heilongjiang saw 79 new cases on Monday – all Chinese citizens travelling back from Russia, state media said.

As of Tuesday, China had reported 82,249 coronavirus cases and 3,341 deaths. There were no deaths in the past 24 hours.

Health ministers from the Group of 20 major economies will speak by video conference on Sunday to address the outbreak’s impact.

(REUTERS)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson was back on his feet in his recovery from COVID-19 on Friday, while his fellow Britons were told to resist the temptation of going out in the spring sunshine over Easter as the coronavirus death toll rose to nearly 9,000.

The prime minister’s rapid health decline shook the country earlier this week, but he came out of three nights of intensive care at St Thomas’ Hospital on Thursday. He was admitted to the hospital on Sunday after his symptoms persisted.

A spokesman for Johnson said the prime minister, 55, was back on a hospital ward as he continued his recovery, which was said to be at an early stage.

“I was told he was waving his thanks to all of the nurses and doctors he saw as he was moved from the intensive care unit back to the ward,” the spokesman said. “The hospital said that he was in extremely good spirits last night.”

His Downing Street office said later that Johnson had been able to do short walks, between periods of rest, as part of the care he was receiving.

“He has spoken to his doctors and thanks the whole clinical team for the incredible care,” a spokesman said.

Johnson was the first world leader to be hospitalised with the coronavirus, forcing him to hand control to foreign minister Dominic Raab just as Britain’s coronavirus outbreak worsened drastically.

In the prime minister’s absence, the government must consider if and when it can end restrictions on movement. Raab said on Thursday it was too early to make a decision because the country had not yet reached the peak of the outbreak.

The UK coronavirus death toll rose by 980 to 8,958 people as of 1600 GMT on April 9, health minister Matt Hancock said on Friday – the fifth highest in the world.

Although Johnson’s condition was improving, it was unclear how long he would be incapacitated.

His spokesman said his recovery was only just beginning and he would take advice from his medical team.

“He must rest up,” his father, Stanley Johnson, told BBC radio. “You cannot walk away from this and go straight back to Downing Street and pick up the reins without a period of readjustment.”

Johnson’s pregnant fiancee, Carrie Symonds, who has also had coronavirus symptoms, tweeted a rainbow picture – in support of healthcare workers – along with hand-clapping emojis.

Lengthy lockdown

The government says it will have a better idea by next week of whether the lockdown has succeeded in reducing infections and hospital admissions.

“We’ve started already to see plateauing,” said epidemiologist Neil Ferguson, a professor at Imperial College in London, who has helped to shape the government’s response.

It will take several more days for the pace of deaths to drop and more weeks to draw definitive conclusions that could allow restrictions to be lifted, he added to BBC radio.

Britons are putting up with a third week of stringent restrictions, during which police have assumed new powers to fine people who leave home unless on essential work or seeking food and medicines.

The four-day Easter break began on Friday with bright sunshine, and authorities were on the lookout for those tempted out to see family and friends.

Scotland’s chief medical officer has already resigned after flouting her own advice to stay at home, and a senior minister was under pressure on Friday after newspapers said he travelled to a second home outside London and visited his parents.

“For clarity – my parents asked me to deliver some essentials – including medicines,” housing minister Robert Jenrick tweeted in defence, adding that he had left London to return to his family home.

“We are confident that he complied with the social distancing rules,” Johnson’s spokesman said.

(REUTERS)

Prime Minister Boris Johnson left intensive care on Thursday evening as he continues to recover from COVID-19, but he remains under close monitoring in hospital, his office said on Thursday.

Johnson, 55, was admitted to St Thomas’ Hospital on Sunday evening with a persistent high temperature and cough, and was rushed to intensive care on Monday where he spent three nights receiving treatment.

“The prime minister has been moved this evening from intensive care back to the ward, where he will receive close monitoring during the early phase of his recovery,” a spokesman from his office said in an emailed statement.

“He is in extremely good spirits.”

Johnson was the first world leader to be hospitalized with the coronavirus, forcing him to hand control of the world’s fifth-largest economy to foreign minister Dominic Raab just as Britain’s outbreak approaches its most deadly peak.

Raab tweeted that the improvement in Johnson’s condition was “the news we all wanted to hear”. US President Donald Trump described it as “great news”.

Johnson’s ongoing recovery prompted a small rise in the value of sterling against the dollar GBP=.

However, the government statement did not give any details on when Johnson may be able to resume leadership, and Raab – speaking before the latest announcement – had stressed the importance of allowing the prime minister to focus on recovery.

No further updates on Johnson’s health were expected on Thursday.

Raab is deputizing for Johnson during the most stringent shutdown in Britain’s peacetime history. Earlier he told a news conference it was too early to end the lockdown because Britain had not reached the peak of the outbreak yet.

The UK death toll in hospitals from coronavirus now stands at 7,978, a rise of 881 on the day but a smaller increase than the 938 seen in Wednesday’s data.

Government spending

With Johnson absent and the death toll still mounting, the British government is wrestling with two major issues – how to finance a vast increase in state spending to support the shuttered economy, and when to start easing lockdown measures.

With the economy facing potentially the worst hit since World War Two, the government said it had expanded its overdraft facility with the Bank of England.

The central bank has agreed temporarily to finance government borrowing in response to COVID-19 if funds cannot immediately be raised from debt markets, reviving a measure last widely used during the 2008 financial crisis.

The BoE said it was a short-term measure and both it and government said any borrowing from the Ways and Means facility – effectively the government’s overdraft with the Bank – would be repaid by the end of the year.

The government has made pledges costing tens of billions of pounds to support businesses and workers hit by the virus. On Thursday, the government said an additional 1.2 million claims for welfare payments had been filed since March 16.

Raab said the peak of the virus outbreak had yet to be reached and that the government would not be able to say more about the duration of the lockdown until late next week, once experts have had chance to analyze data on how well it is working. It was introduced last month.

“The measures will have to stay in place until we’ve got the evidence that clearly shows we’ve moved beyond the peak,” he said.

While Johnson’s condition was improving, the likely length of his recovery remained unknown, with some political commentators saying there was a power vacuum in his absence.

Raab said on Thursday he had the power to make “necessary decisions” in the prime minister’s absence and that government will continue to follow the strategy set out by Johnson. He said cabinet could take decisions collectively.

The United Kingdom is entering what scientists say is the deadliest phase of the outbreak, with deaths expected to continue to rise over the Easter weekend.

But in a sign the shutdown measures were working, health officials have said the number of coronavirus infections and hospital admissions had begun to show signs of flattening.

Police said they would be taking tougher action to do just that before the four-day Easter holiday weekend because many people were continuing to ignore the ban on social gatherings.

(Source: Reuters)

France will extend its nationwide lockdown put in place to contain the spread of the new coronavirus for a second time, meaning it will run beyond April 15, the French presidential palace said on Wednesday.

The Élysée Palace said French President Emmanuel Macron would address the nation regarding the disease situation on Monday evening.

Macron will from now until Monday “speak to a large number of public and private actors – French, European and international – on what is at stake concerning Covid-19 and prepare the decisions that will be announced on Monday to the French”, the presidency said.

It will be Macron’s third prime time address from the Élysée Palace since the crisis began.

The announcement comes as France’s coronavirus death toll rose to 10,869 after hospitals recorded 541 new fatalities over the most recent 24-hour period.

Jérôme Salomon, head of the public health authority, told reporters that there were now 7,148 people in intensive care at hospitals across France, a net increase of 17 from the day earlier, the lowest increase recorded in recent weeks.

Salomon said he was unable to give a tally for the country’s nursing homes, which account for more than 30 percent of total fatalities, due to “technical problems”.

The health official said the nationwide lockdown, which began on March 17, had helped slow down the virus’s spread.

“The slowing seen over the last days is linked to your good respect of the confinement rules,” he said.

He expressed hope that France would see a flattening in its curve of cases in coming days but emphasised that this “plateau is at a very high level”.

(FRANCE 24 with REUTERS)

France officially registered more than 10,000 deaths from coronavirus infections on Tuesday, becoming the fourth country to go beyond that threshold after Italy, Spain and the United States.

The total death toll from Covid-19 rose to 10,328 from 8,911 on Monday, Jérôme Salomon, head of the public health authority, told a press conference, warning that “the epidemic is continuing its progression.”

Salomon said 7,091 fatalities have been recorded at French hospitals since March 1. A further 3,237 people have died at care homes for the elderly, he added, giving a much higher figure than reported on Monday.

He stressed that the latter count was still partial, with some nursing homes yet to report.

More than 30,000 people were being treated in hospitals around the country, with 7,131 in intensive care, Salomon added.

“We are in the ascending phase of the epidemic, even if it is slowing a bit,” he warned. “We have not yet reached the peak.”

The death toll of 10,328 included 597 fatalities in hospital in the last 24 hours, according to a government update .

Paris bans daytime jogging

Earlier on Tuesday, Paris officials said they would ban lone daytime jogging as people continue to flout anti-coronavirus lockdown rules.

“Every excursion avoided aids the fight against the epidemic,” Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo and police chief Didier Lallement said in a statement announcing the partial jogging ban.

Paris bans daytime jogging in bid to slow spread of coronavirus

Paris and other cities have already closed public parks and gardens as part of the nationwide lockdown that requires people to carry a document justifying any excursion from the home.

Addressing parliament, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the unwinding of the lockdown, which at this stage is supposed to run until April 15, would not “happen overnight”.

The lockdown “is difficult for many French people, I am fully aware of this. But it is essential if we do not wish to find ourselves in an even worse situation than the one we are experiencing today”, he said.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, REUTERS)