PARIS (BLOOMBERG) – France reported deaths linked to the coronavirus rose at the slowest pace in three days on Wednesday (May 13). The number of patients in hospitals and in intensive care continued to decline.

Fatalities rose by 83 to 27,074, France’s Health Ministry said in an e-mailed statement, with fewer than 100 deaths for the third time in five days.

The country reported 213,664 coronavirus cases, little changed from a day earlier as the number for infections in nursing homes was revised down.

France has started easing lockdown measures that helped slow the coronavirus outbreak, with many stores reopening after almost eight weeks.

The number of people in France who had been infected was estimated to be 2.8 million as of May 11, or 4.4 per cent of the population, according to a study based on modelling published in Science magazine on Wednesday.

“The epidemic remains active and the virus is still circulating,” the ministry said.

“We must remain cautious.”

People hospitalised because of the virus fell by 524 to 21,071, the lowest since March 30.

Patients in intensive care because of the virus, which health officials consider a key indicator of the pressure on France’s health-care system, fell by 114 to 2,428, about a third of the peak in April.

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