Paris | The French government plans to lift the lockdown and authorize travel from December 15, shortly before the end of the year holidays, when the country has just crossed the 50,000 death mark due to COVID-19.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
All small shops such as bookstores or florists will be able to reopen on Saturday, but with a drop in the curtains at 9:00 p.m. Bars, restaurants, gyms and nightclubs will, however, remain closed, President Emmanuel Macron announced on Tuesday, announcing a first reduction with the reopening on Saturday of non-essential shops closed a month earlier.
50,237 dead
France has recorded a total of 50,237 deaths in hospitals and medico-social establishments, Public Health France said.
34,399 deaths have occurred in hospitals, including 458 in the last 24 hours, while 15,838 have occurred in establishments for the elderly and dependent (Ehpad) and medico-social establishments, i.e. 551 more since the last update of these figures Friday, specifies the government site dedicated to statistics of the epidemic.
More than 9,000 new positive cases have also been confirmed, against nearly 4,500 on Monday. It was the first time that they had dropped below the 5,000 mark since the end of September, a figure that is however still lower after the weekend, when fewer tests are carried out.
The test positivity rate (proportion of the number of positive people compared to the total number of people tested) also continues to drop to 13.1% on Tuesday against 13.3% on Monday and 14% on Sunday. It has been declining since early November.
The pressure continues to drop in the hospital. The intensive care unit was occupied on Tuesday by 4,277 COVID-19 patients (4,438 Monday), including 270 new admissions (244 Monday). A total of 30,594 people carrying the virus were hospitalized on Tuesday, down significantly from the previous day: 31,449.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday reaffirmed a target of 5,000 daily contaminations before lifting the containment measures, with a threshold of 2,500 to 3,000 people in intensive care units.