Coronavirus: France registers 40,558 new COVID-19, under-reporting likely

France registered 40,558 new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, compared with 36,330 on Tuesday and a record of 52,518 on Monday, health ministry data showed.

The total number of cases increased to 1,543,321 but the ministry added that the number of new cases reported on Wednesday was a minimum number that could increase due to problems with data gathering.

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The ministry also reported that the number of people who have died from the virus increased by 385 to 38,674, compared with 854 on Tuesday but those numbers included a multi-day batch of 428 deaths in retirement homes. The ministry said there were 394 new deaths in hospitals over the past 24 hours.

The highest number of COVID-19 deaths reported per day - in hospitals and retirement homes - since the start of the epidemic was 1,438 on April 15. The seven-day moving average of deaths increased to 413 from 393 on Tuesday.

The number of people in intensive care with the virus increased by 211 to 4,089, the first time this tally was over 4,000 since April 30. At the height of the outbreak, on April 8, a record 7,148 COVID-19 patients were in ICU.

The number of people in hospital with the virus rose by 1,269 to 27,534, about 5,000 below the 32,292 high set in the spring.

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