France’s registered death toll from coronavirus infections rose towards 18,000 on Thursday, but some data suggested the spread of the disease has been contained after a one-month old national lockdown, officials said. During a press conference Jerome Salomon, head of the public health authority, said the number of people in hospital had declined for a second day running, and that the total number in intensive care units had fallen for the eighth day in a row. Corroborating this observation, senior health officials in Paris – the worst-hit region in France – said there was reason for optimism in the fight against the new coronavirus in view of the number of hospitalisations and admissions to ICU units.
