France: Coronavirus deaths down, while fight endures

By Cindi Cook

PARIS (AA) - French Health Minister Jerome Salomon in his daily press briefing late Saturday reported a total of 7,560 fatalities from the coronavirus, with 68,605 confirmed cases of infection.

The new death toll includes those in the country's nursing homes, with 567 more deaths, raising the tally to 2,028 in nursing homes.

The death toll in hospitals hit 5,532, with 441 more fatalities.

According to Salomon, 28,143 people remain hospitalized with 6,838 of those in intensive care. A total of 15,438 have returned home after being hospitalized.

The confinement period will stay in effect until April 15 but may be extended, and a gradual lifting, depending on region and age of persons, will be discussed over the next week, according to Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Evacuations of critically ill patients continued this week as well, with 439 patients from the hardest-hit Ile-de-France and Grand-Est regions being taken to other regions where there are available beds at medical facilities for treatment.

Worldwide, there are over 1.1 million confirmed cases of coronavirus, with more than 63,900 reported deaths, while nearly 238,000 people have recovered, according to data compiled by U.S.-based Johns Hopkins University.

Despite the severity of the virus, most people experience mild symptoms and recover in due time.