France battles second wave as daily cases hit record high and death toll passes 40,000

‘The second wave arrived brutally and violently,’ says Jean Castex

France's prime minister urged the public to respect the lockdown as a record number coronavirus cases were reported in a single day and the death toll passed 40,000.

Jean Castex said that the second wave of Covid-19 had "arrived brutally and violently" after meeting staff the CHU Hopital Nord in the city of Saint-Etienne.

“Our caregivers are once again on the deck as their CHU reaches saturation point,” he tweeted on Saturday.

"Let's respect them. Let's respect confinement. Let us limit our contacts as much as possible."

More than 30,000 people are in hospital in France with Covid-19, after nearly 20,000 admissions over the last seven days, according to the health ministry.

Just over 4,500 of those patients are in intensive care.

On Sunday a further 271 deaths were confirmed, taking the total in both hospitals and other establishments such as care homes to 40,439.  

The death toll had passed 40,000 on Saturday evening, when 86,852 new cases were reported — beating the record set the previous day. Sunday saw a further 40,000 positive tests reported, taking the total to 1,787,324.

In its latest update, the health ministry warned that all metropolitan regions in France were affected by the second wave.  

"The evolution of the hospital situation for Covid-19 is very worrying and suggests tensions in all regions in the coming weeks if the progression of the epidemic continues," it added.

The rate of new cases per 100,000 population over the last seven days is now 457, according to the ministry.

France entered its second lockdown on 30 October. Non-essential shops were closed and people were told to only go out for essential shopping, daily exercise and work if it is not possible to work from home.

The restrictions are due to last until 1 December but could be extended if the number of new daily cases remains above 5,000.