Paris: (Reuters)
France has recorded an average of 90,000 new corona virus infections in the last seven days, an increase of 36% over the previous week.
This came shortly before the presidential election, after the French government removed most of the measures in the Covid-19 health code.
The number of new cases in the last 24 hours released on Sunday was 81,283, raising the seven-day moving average to 89,002, compared to an average of 60,000 new cases a week ago.
The number of 100,000 cases reached its highest level since February 18.
On March 14, the government of French President Emmanuel Macron decided to lift most of the restrictions imposed on the fight against Covit-19 on the basis of positive indicators.
Macron expects re-election in three weeks, followed by assembly elections later that year.
The removal of restrictions indicates that people in France do not need to wear masks in closed spaces, except on public transport, hospitals and other medical facilities.
New hospital admissions, which French health minister Oliver Vaughan sees as a leading indicator, fell 1.7% on a weekly basis, signaling a slow decline since early February, a reversal of previous trends.
The recent increase in new epidemics was particularly notable in the eastern Alsace region of France, which was one of the worst-hit areas at the onset of the epidemic, where authorities registered more than 1,000 new cases per 100,000 population.