France on Tuesday reported 531 deaths from Covid-19 in 24 hours as the number of people in hospital and intensive care continued to decline, reports FRANCE 24.
The daily tally – 387 deaths in hospital and 144 in nursing homes – brought France's total Covid-19 death toll to 20,796, top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters.
Salomon spoke one day after France became the fourth country after Italy, Spain, and the US to surpass the 20,000-fatality mark.
France has been under virtual lockdown for five weeks and is due to start lifting some confinement measures on May 11.
Prime minister Édouard Philippe told a news conference Sunday that the gradual exit from lockdown in May, due to start with the reopening of schools, would not allow people to move around or interact as before, especially without any vaccine against the virus.