PARIS : France on Monday reported that 833 more people had died of COVID-19 in hospitals and nursing homes over the previous 24 hours, its highest daily toll since the epidemic began. "We have not reached the end of the ascent of this epidemic," Health Minster Olivier Veran told reporters, as he announced the new toll which brought the total number killed in the coronavirus epidemic in France to 8,911.
The figures were a reminder to France -- which has been in lockdown since March 17 in a bid to slow the spread of the virus -- of the long road ahead after several days where key data had improved somewhat.
France is now giving a daily combined toll of deaths in hospitals and nursing homes. Previously it had only given the hospital toll on a