Number of French COVID-19 patients in intensive care rises for second day
PARIS (Reuters) - The number of COVID-19 patients in intensive care units (ICU) in French hospitals rose for the second day in a row, reversing a downward trend that had lasted 16 weeks, health ministry data showed on Tuesday.
The ministry said in a statement the number of people in ICU rose by four to 388, after increasing by 13 on Monday. No ICU data from the weekend have been reported.
The number of people in ICU has fallen virtually every day without interruption since reaching a high of 7,148 on April 8, except for two one-day increases in July that had both been followed by the resumption of the downtrend.
On July 30, the number of people in intensive care had increased by 1, and by 16 on July 15.
The ministry also said the number of confirmed coronavirus infections rose by another 1,039 to 192,334 in the past 24 hours and that the overall number of people hospitalised with the respiratory disease fell by 36 to 5,162.
The death toll from the virus in France increased by just two to 30,296, the lowest single-day figure since the start of the pandemic in mid-March.
Earlier on Tuesday, the government's top scientific body warned that a second wave of the pandemic is highly likely to hit France in the autumn or winter.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Heinrich)
