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France warns of ‘exponential’ rise in coronavirus cases

France on Friday said there had been an "exponential" rise in coronavirus cases with more than 7,000 new infections in 24 hours.

Published: 29 August 2020 09:37 CEST

France warns of 'exponential' rise in coronavirus cases

People wearing face masks at an open air food market in Paris. Photo: Christophe Archambault / AFP

“The dynamic of the progression of the epidemic is exponential,” France's directorate general of health said, adding that there were 7,379 new infections in mainland France against 6,111 on Thursday and 5,429 on Wednesday.

This was the highest figure recorded since testing was expanded in France. The 4,000-mark was breached a few days ago and the number of infections has been rising steadily.

The directorate said there were 4,535 people hospitalised on Friday — the same number as the previous day — of whom 387 were in serious condition.

The new coronavirus has claimed 30,596 lives in France so far. Masks were made mandatory outdoors in Paris to fight the rising infections.

Masks were already compulsory on public transport, in enclosed public spaces, and outdoors in Paris in certain high-congestion areas around tourist sites.

Member comments

Anonymous - 29 August 2020 at 12:54 CEST

Yet they are still letting the Tour go ahead. Braindead is being polite.

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France’s Covid-19 app to be 'put to sleep'

Covid-19 screening in France reaches an important milestone on Friday, June 30th, 2023 – when the TousAntiCovid app is officially ‘put to sleep’.

The app, which was launched in June 2020 as France came out of its first lockdown of the pandemic and has undergone a number of iterations, including as a delivery device for the health pass, will be switched off.

For most people, this anniversary will pass without mention. Few people have consulted the app in recent months, and it has sat dormant on many smartphones since France’s Covid-19 health pass requirement was suspended in March 2022.

Meanwhile, the Système d’Informations de DEPistage (SI-DEP) interface – which has been informing people about their test results since the Spring of 2020 – is also being shut down on June 30th, as per legal requirements.

The SI-DEP shutdown means that it will also be impossible to retrieve Covid test certificates issued before June 30th, should the need arise. All data held by the database will be “destroyed”, officials have said.

It has handled more than 320 million antigen and PCR tests since it was introduced.

This does not mean that testing for Covid-19 has stopped, or is now unnecessary. As reported recently, more than 1,000 deaths a week in Europe are still caused by the virus.

The shutdown of the national information system does not mean that people in France cannot still book an appointment for an antigen test at a pharmacy, or a PCR test at a laboratory. But the number of people going for testing is declining rapidly. In recent days, according to Le Parisien, just 15,000 people in France took a Covid test – the lowest number, it said, since the pandemic started.

Reimbursement rules for testing changed on March 1st, with only certain categories of people – minors, those aged 65 and over, or immunosuppressed patients – covered for the entire cost of testing.

From Friday, only PCR test results will be transmitted to authorities for data purposes, meaning pharmacists that only offer antigen testing will be locked out of the online interface to record test results.

The reason for the shift in priorities is to maintain “minimal epidemiological surveillance”, the Ministry of Health has reportedly told scientists.

As a result test certificates, showing a positive or negative result, will no longer be issued from July 1st. Since February 1st, anyone taking a test has had to give consent to share their data in order to obtain a certificate.

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