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France reports 20,366 new COVID-19 cases

Europe Materials 19 November 2021 04:14 (UTC +04:00)

France on Thursday reported 20,366 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of confirmed cases in the country to 7,351,324, Trend reports citing Xinhua.

Fifty-seven more deaths related to COVID-19 were also recorded during the same period, raising the national death toll to 118,373, according to the French Public Health Agency

Numbers of new hospital admissions and patients in critical condition also continue to rise. According to the Agency, 7,787 patients are currently hospitalized, 522 more than the day before. Meanwhile, 1,333 patients are in intensive care units, including 119 reported in the past 24 hours.

Speaking Thursday on the French news channel LCI, government spokesperson Gabriel Attal announced that some vaccination centers would reopen their doors to the public.

"With the increasing demand for injections of booster shots, now for those over 65 and later for those over 50, this may lead to vaccination centers which had closed, or reduced their capacity, to resume activity," he said.

The government had previously announced that from Dec. 15, people over 65 years old will only have their health pass validated after receiving a booster shot.

Meanwhile, Minister for the Economy Bruno Le Maire said Thursday that new confinement would be "too hard for the French."

"I am above all in favor of avoiding these measures, of avoiding new confinement, and of everyone making the necessary effort to be vaccinated, to protect themselves," he told local radio.

France has approved the use of vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.

In September, the government announced that people who have received two doses of China's Sinovac or Sinopharm vaccines would be eligible to get their health pass after the administration of a complementary dose of a messenger (mRNA) vaccine.

By Nov. 17, a total of 51,616,721 people had received at least one vaccine dose in France.

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