According to numbers presented to a parliamentary session by Health Minister Olivier Veran, the number of cases has increased by 15% since Tuesday, when a record 179,807 new infections were reported, and has more than doubled since Saturday.
With a post-Christmas spike, France hit a new national record for Covid-19 infections on Wednesday, with 208,000 new infections documented over 24 hours.
The minister had warned on Monday that by the beginning of January, France might have more than 250,000 daily Covid cases, as a week of unfettered Christmas parties and family get-togethers fuels the disease’s spread.
Daily hospital admissions for Covid in France are averaging over 1,000 per day, albeit significantly below the peak of 3,500 in April 2020 or around 3,000 in November last year.
According to WHO, Europe accounted for more than half of all new cases, with 2.84 million new cases. However, the number of new cases in Europe increased by only 3% over the previous week. With 304.6 new cases per 100,000 population, Europe had the highest infection rate of any area.
