France logs 24,392 new Covid-19 cases in a day

Paris, Jan 31 (IANS) Amid an ongoing resurgence, France registered 24,392 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, which took the overall infection tally to 3,236,685, the sixth highest in the world, according to health authorities.Meanwhile, the country also reported 242 new fatalities due to the disease in the same period, increasing the total death toll to 76,006, currently the seventh highest globally, reports Xinhua news agency.As of Saturday, 27,282 patients remained hospitalised, out of which 3,113 were in intensive care units.Prime Minister Jean Castex on Friday ruled out a new lockdown, but announced a series of tougher restrictions.Starting from Sunday, borders to non-European Union (EU) countries will be closed except for essential travel. Meanwhile, all visitors from other EU nations will have to show a negative PCR (polymerase chain reaction) test except for cross-border workers.Non-food shopping malls with a surface area of more than 20,000 square metres will be shut down, police controls will be intensified against people breaking the curfew and testing will be reinforced.As to France's vaccination roll-out, the Health Ministry said in a statement that a total of 1,447,155 people had been vaccinated so far, including 24,201 who have received their second jab.
--IANS ksk/