PARIS, March 15 (Xinhua) -- The number of daily deaths caused by the novel coronavirus in France more than doubled to 333 in the past 24 hours, taking the total toll to 90,762 as the country is close to running out of beds in intensive care units, data from the health authorities showed on Monday.
There were 25,469 people in hospitals for COVID-19, up by 480, the biggest daily jump since Jan. 25. That included 4,219 who require life support, the highest since late November when France was under lockdown.
In the last 24 hours, 6,471 people tested positive for the coronavirus, lower than Sunday's 26,343 but higher than the 5,327 cases confirmed last Monday. The fall in the number of new infections on Mondays is due to fewer tests conducted over the weekend.
"We will no doubt have to make new decisions in coming days," President Emmanuel Macron said. "Unfortunately, the master of time is the virus."
Speaking at a joint press conference with visiting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, Macron pledged to protect people while keeping economic activities running by implementing new rules in "an appropriate and proportionate manner."
Twenty-three departments, including Ile-de-France, or the greater Paris region, have been placed under "reinforced surveillance" after reporting 250 new infections per 100,000 inhabitants, with the new virus variants making up half of the total positive tests.
After the number of daily cases surpassed the threshold of 400 cases per 100,000 citizens, the Alpes-Maritimes, Pas-de-Calais and Dunkirk, have imposed weekend lockdown to bring the viral circulation under control.
On Sunday, during an interview on the Twitch platform, Prime Minister Jean Castex mentioned possible additional restrictions in the greater Paris region if this threshold is exceeded.
According to data from the health authorities, the incidence rate reached 404 cases Monday, against 391 the day before, an increase of 14 percent.
In the coming days, around 100 patients in intensive care units in Ile-de-France must be evacuated to hospitals in other regions as the establishments in Paris region are saturated, reported BFM TV.
So far, the government staved off a third nationwide lockdown, citing its negative impact. Instead, it ordered closure of large malls and reinforced mask-wearing in all urban areas in high-risk regions and called on people to limit their travel as much as possible.
As of Monday, 5,135,616 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccines have been administered by focusing first on the elderly, the highly vulnerable, and frontline medical staff and care workers.
France aims to vaccinate 10 million citizens by mid-April, 20 million by mid-May and a total of 30 million, or two-thirds of the adult population, by summer.
It has already approved the use of vaccines developed by Pfizer/BioNTech, Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca.
Following reports of suspected deaths from blood clots after vaccinations with jabs from the British-Swedish pharmaceutical group, France has suspended the use of the AstraZeneca vaccine pending an assessment by the European Medicines Agency (EMA), Macron announced on Monday.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in an increasing number of countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.
Meanwhile, 263 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 81 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain, and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Friday. Enditem
