France's new Covid-19 infections were sharply down over 24 hours on Monday, as they always tend to be at the beginning of the week, but deaths and hospitalisations linked to the disease were sharply up again, reports FRANCE 24.
France's health director acknowledged the main French cities put under curfew mid-October were starting to see a lesser spread of the disease, but he stressed the peak of the Covid-19 pandemic was still to come.
"We are at a crucial moment," Jérôme Salomon told a news conference, as France was already more than 10 days in its second national lockdown aimed at reining in the virus.
Salomon reported 20,155 daily new Covid-19 infections, down from Saturday's record of 86,852 and Sunday's 38,619.
The Monday figure tends to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays. The seven-day moving average of new infections, which averages out weekly data reporting irregularities, stood at 48,734, the third highest on record.