PARIS (FRANCE) – French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday it was too early to claim victory over the second coming of coronavirus infections, despite the fact that recent data showed some encouraging signs.
Veran told reporters that authorities were already on gradually regaining control over the epidemic, however, warned that it was too soon to let up.
“We have not defeated the virus yet”, Veran told reporters in Lyon. He added that as long as daily infection numbers did not decrease on a significant level and the hospital system remained under pressure, lockdown efforts must continue.
President Emmanuel Macron has said that daily infection numbers must drop back to 5,000 before steps limiting movement of people can be eased to level not seen.
On Saturday, the number of people going into hospital or in intensive care units (ICU) with COVID-19, which had gone up since mid-August, finally fell, by a modest 208, to 32,499.
The number of people in also came down for the first time in months, by 32 to 4,871.
The ICU numbers also edged up again, by 25, but remain well below the April 8 high of 7,148.