People walk on the Passerelle Simone de Beauvoir in Paris, amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, August 1, 2021. REUTERS FILE PHOTO
PARIS — French health authorities reported 7,360 daily new COVID-19 infections on Saturday, the first time the tally has topped 7,000 since Sept 21.
In another sign the virus is ramping up again, the seven-day moving average of daily new cases reached a more than one month high of 5,669.
The cumulative total of new cases now stands at 7.16 million.
Hospital cases – whose trend usually lags new case data by one to two weeks – were slightly down at 6,524 over 24 hours.
But compared to last Saturday’s figure, the total is up by almost 200.
The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care rose by 5 in 24 hours to 1,039 and by 32 over a week.
France also registered 22 new deaths from the epidemic, taking the total to 117,643.