MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2020) France's efforts to curb the second coronavirus outbreak have shown results, but it is too early to talk about victory over the pandemic, French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Monday.
The nationwide lockdown in France has been in effect since October 30 and is due to last all of November. The decision to implement it came amid the surge in the virus infection rate, which has been in place since early fall, but sharply increased last month. Nonetheless, the health authorities have been reporting a decline in the daily numbers of infections over the past week.
"This morning in Lyon, alongside the teams mobilized for a medical evacuation of a patient [with] # COVID19. There have been 142 similar operations since October [in France]. We are gradually regaining control over the epidemic. But let us not relax our efforts," Veran tweeted.
He noted that despite a positive trend in the infection rate declining, some regions of the country still their healthcare systems to be overloaded, and the daily numbers of cases � an average of 30,000 across the country � are still being confirmed. In this regard, the fight against the virus is still underway, Veran said.
To date, the French health authorities have recorded 1,915,713 COVID-19 cases, the world's fifth-highest total, and 42,601 related deaths.
