France's coronavirus deaths reach 14,393, ICU cases continue to decrease

PARIS - As of Sunday, the number of people who have died from the coronavirus in France totalled 14,393, representing a one-day increase of 561, down from Saturday's 643, while serious cases decreased for the fourth straight day.

Daily deaths recorded in hospitals rose by 315 to 9,253 compared with 345 recorded on Saturday and 554 on Friday. Deaths in nursing homes increased by 251 to 5,140 since the epidemic started on March 1, according to the data released by the Health Ministry.

A total of 6,845 COVID-19 patients are being treated in intensive care units, down from 6,883 on Saturday. The decrease, for the fourth day in a row, gave the French health system small but much-needed relief.

In total, 31,826 COVID-19 patients are being treated in hospitals, up by 1,688 from a day before. Meanwhile, 825 more patients recovered, bringing the total recoveries to 27,186 since early March.

"These data confirm that the epidemic continues spreading in our country in a dynamic way and continues to hit hard," the ministry said.

"We are seeing the start of a very high plateau but we must remain vigilant... We must not relax our efforts and continue to reduce the number of contacts every day to curb altogether the virus contagion," it added, urging people to strictly respect movement restriction and rigorously apply barrier gestures and social distancing.