Peak of France’s third Covid wave still more than a week away, as new lockdown comes into force

French health ministry reports 50,659 new coronavirus cases in latest data

People wear face mask as they walk in the Tuileries garden in Paris, 1 April (AP)

France is still at least a week away from the peak of its third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The country reported 50,659 new coronavirus cases on Thursday, against 59,038 on Wednesday and 45,641 reported on Thursday a week ago, health ministry data showed.

A total of 5,109 people were in intensive care units with Covid-19, up by 56 from a day earlier.

France could hit the peak of the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in 7 to 10 days with the new restrictive measures announced on Wednesday by president Emmanuel Macron, health minister Olivier Veran told France Inter radio.

Mr Macron ordered France into its third national lockdown and said schools would close for three weeks as he sought to push back a surge of infections that threatens to overwhelm hospitals.

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France also reported 308 new deaths in hospitals from Covid-19 on Thursady, bringing the total tally of deaths in hospitals to 69,904.

The total number of deaths from coronavirus in the country is estimated to be closer to 100,000.

Mr Macron’s order for a third Covid-19 lockdown, having insisted for weeks on keeping the country open against the advice of scientists, exposed him to widespread criticism.

The French president has also been criticised for the perceived slow pace of France’s vaccination campaign. Only about 12 per cent of the population has received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine, compared to more than 45 per cent in the UK.

In locking the country down, the former investment banker abandoned a two-month gamble that he could steer France through this surge without the tough stay-at-home orders and school closures imposed in some other European nations this year.

Prime minister Jean Castex told lawmakers on Thursday before they took a symbolic vote on the lockdown that the government strived to strike a balance between acting neither too early, nor too late.

“These measures seem to us essential. Essential to allowing our country to get through what we hope will be this last phase [of the crisis],” he said.

The president has previously insisted he was right to keep France open and shield the economy from another shutdown, even as hospitals began buckling under the strain. “I have no mea culpa to make, no regrets,” Mr Macron said just a week ago.

Mr Macron gambled in January that a curfew and the closure of restaurants and bars could stem infections. But by early March, the virus was running rampant as a more contagious variant took hold and the vaccine rollout stuttered.

On Wednesday night, however, Mr Macron acknowledged some mistakes had been made. “All that is true. But I know one thing: we’ve held on, we’ve learned and at each point we have improved.”

Additional reporting by agencies