WITH REUTERS: France registered more than 436,000 new coronavirus infections on Wednesday, after reporting a record 464,769 new cases on Tuesday, health ministry data showed. The death toll on the same day was 232.

The seven-day moving average of new cases jumped to a new record high of more than 320,000, after breaking 300,000 on Tuesday.
The number of coronavirus patients in hospital rose by more than 700 again to 27,230, but the number of coronavirus patients in intensive care has been falling for several days in a row and remains well below 4,000.

Meanwhile, the benchmark incidence rate has continued to increase in the Alpes-Maritimes, bordering Monaco, and stood at 3,499 per 100,000 inhabitants on Wednesday, January 19.

However, as the UK is in the process of lifting almost all restriction, France is also taking a similar approach.

“We should ask the French for another two weeks of effort before lifting restrictions,” a source close to the executive told AFP. “We want to give a little visibility, especially since people are fed up. We will say that if the conditions improve, in one or two weeks we will lift the restrictions, ” another source told le Figaro daily.

FILE PHOTO: People wearing protective face masks walk in the Tuileries Gardens in Paris amid the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak in France, January 5, 2022. REUTERS/Gonzalo Fuentes