Covid-19: contaminations still in ebb in France – Le Figaro

UPDATE ON THE SITUATION – New measures, new reports and highlights: Le Figaro takes stock of the latest developments in the Covid-19 pandemic. Decline in contamination, stagnation in hospitalizations, turning into confinement in Shanghai … Le Figaro takes stock this Sunday, April 17 on the latest information related to the Covid-19 pandemic. Read alsoWhere can we travel? Our map of open countries and restrictions for French tourists 86,650 cases in 24 hours Over the past 24 hours, the French public health agency has recorded 86,650 cases of SARS-CoV2 virus infections. This figure is not very representative on the weekend, since fewer people are tested, but down compared to the previous Sunday (more than 107,000 cases). Same trend by calculating the seven-day average which stands at 117,664, versus 135,646 a week ago. Slight stagnation in hospitalizations This ebb in contamination has been accompanied by a very slight leveling off in hospitalizations for a few days, whereas they had clearly started to rise again since the beginning of April. There are currently 24,922 Covid patients treated in French hospitals, including 315 new admissions, compared to 24,894 patients hospitalized the day before and 23,626 the previous Sunday. Among these patients, 1,636 are treated in critical care services which take care of the most serious cases of Covid. Barely more than Saturday (1,630) but more than a week ago (1,562). Read alsoCovid-19: are we witnessing the start of a new epidemic wave? At the Printemps de Bourges, an uncertain attendance This musical meeting opens the festival season: after two editions truncated by the health crisis, the Printemps de Bourges returns to its traditional format, but without knowing if the public will fill all the halls as before . First there is the glass half full. “It’s a normal edition so it will be exceptional,” rejoices Boris Vedel, director of the event scheduled for Tuesday to Sunday. “We come back with a stronger positioning on creation and emergence,” continues the manager. For the past two years, if concerts have taken place, in symbolic gauge in 2020 and limited in 2021, the city was, as he says, “empty and sad” due to health constraints in the face of Covid-19. Le Printemps, with nearly “150 artists” programmed this year, has the particularity of attracting professionals from the music industry. “We are going to pass the bar of 4000 pros, it’s a pro attendance record in sight, it’s extra”, enthuses Boris Vedel. But there are also concerns about the influx of the public (200,000 people for the last real edition in 2019). The boss of Printemps fears “overall, 30% less attendance, which makes the financial balance fragile but should not take away the joy of meeting again”. “People have gotten used to going to cinemas, theaters, concerts, analyzes Boris Vedel. And in the young population, some have learned to party differently and do not have the festival reflex, there is work to be done on that. The public also buys “seats very late, some say to themselves ‘if I have the Covid I would have bought a place for nothing’; there are places left for the evenings of Friday and Saturday, everything will happen in the last days, ”he adds. The boss of Printemps also notes a brake in the “popular and family” strata of the public with “a feeling of loss of purchasing power, a feeling accentuated by the presidential election”. Towards a turning point in Shanghai’s containment Shanghai has given itself until Wednesday at the latest to stop the spread of the Covid-19 epidemic outside quarantined areas, said two sources familiar with the matter, leaving bode well for the Chinese city, faced with growing frustration from the population, an easing of confinement and the beginning of a return to normal life. Read alsoCovid fear in China weighs on global activity To achieve this objective, the authorities will have to accelerate their testing campaign and the transfer of positive cases of Covid-19 to quarantine centers, according to the speech of a local Communist Party official dated Saturday and seen by Reuters. Shortly after reaching that goal, other cities like Shenzhen reopened public transportation and allowed businesses to return to work. China’s space station not affected by Covid-19 The Covid-19 outbreak will not affect China’s space station construction and construction progress is under control, said agency director Hao Chun Chinese space at a press conference on Sunday.