France daily virus cases hit new post-lockdown high

PARIS: France on Wednesday recorded new coronavirus cases at the fastest daily rate since May, official figures showed, as the country prepares for the return from summer holidays.

Almost 3,800 COVID-19 infections were confirmed in the past 24 hours, the health ministry's DGS public health division said.

"All indicators continue to climb and transmission of the virus is intensifying," the DGS said in a statement.

More than 3,000 new daily cases have been registered on just two days since May, on Saturday and Sunday last weekend.

Several departments in both the Ile-de-France region around the capital Paris and the Provence-Alpes-Cote d'Azur region around Mediterranean port city Marseille on Wednesday passed the "alert threshold" of 50 new daily cases per 100,000 inhabitants, the DGS said.

Nationwide, over 16,700 infections have been detected over the past week.

Meanwhile the number of people in intensive care because of the virus remains comparatively low at 374.

Since the coronavirus emerged late last year, more than 225,000 people have been infected in France and almost 30,500 have died.