PARIS | France crossed the threshold of 70,000 deaths from COVID-19 on Saturday since the start of the epidemic, according to figures from Public Health France.
• Read also: All developments in the COVID-19 pandemic
In total, 70,142 people have died from the disease, including 196 in the last 24 hours, the national agency said in its daily report.
The number of new contaminations also remains high with 21,406 cases recorded in the last 24 hours, substantially the same as in recent days.
The strain on hospitals remains high, with a total number of hospitalized COVID patients rising to 24,985, including 1,199 arrivals recorded on Saturday. Among them, 2,731 are in intensive care, with 188 new admissions in 24 hours.
The positivity rate, which measures the percentage of people positive for the new coronavirus among those tested, remains stable at 6.5%.
France has applied a general curfew at 6 p.m. since Saturday, fearing an epidemic rebound linked to the threat of new, more contagious variants of the coronavirus.
Government policy has not been effective enough so far to significantly reduce the number of daily infections, while the vaccination campaign has only just begun.