France's COVID-19 death toll breaches 100,000; eighth-highest in world

PARIS: France's COVID-19 death toll rose on Thursday (Apr 15) to more than 100,000, according to the latest hospital figures from the health ministry, marking a bleak milestone for President Emmanuel Macron's government.

Data from the health ministry's GEODES website said French hospitals registered another 300 COVID-19 deaths in the last 24 hours, which, added to the Apr 14 overall death figure, pushed the overall tally to more than 100,000.

France has the world's eighth-highest COVID-19 death toll. The United States is the worst-hit country in terms of COVID deaths, at 564,000, followed by Brazil, Mexico and India. Worldwide, the death toll stands at over three million.

France's fatality rate from the disease has now nearly doubled from just over 52,000 at the end of its second lockdown at the end of November.

In the past 30 days, France has registered on average just over 300 new COVID-19 deaths per day, or 9,000 per month, compared to nearly 16,000 per month during the second lockdown.

Health ministry data also showed that 5,924 people were in intensive care units on Thursday, up from 5,902 a day earlier.

Still, with France's vaccination campaign focused on retirement care homes, the death toll among senior citizens has dropped sharply from more than 1,500 per week in mid-November and 800 per week in the first half of January to just 48 last week. 

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