French hospitals recorded their highest death toll in 24 hours with 588 new fatalities from coronavirus, the country's chief medical adviser told a press conference on Friday, as the total toll including retirement homes rose to more than 6,500, reports FRANCE 24.
France's director general of health, Jérôme Salomon, announced the figures during a daily press conference, saying a total of 5,091 people had died in French hospitals since the start of the crisis.
Giving a separate tally for nursing homes, Salomon said that a provisional count showed that at least 1,416 people had died at care homes for the elderly after contracting the virus.
French officials started releasing figures for care homes only yesterday. The huge rise in those numbers makes for a total of 6,507 lives lost to coronavirus in France, so far.
Salomon said that the number of known infections rose nationwide to 64,338 from 59,105 on Thursday.