There has been a “marked” increase in Covid-19 cases in Occitanie and Nouvelle-Aquitaine, France’s government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said this afternoon (June 2).
He was speaking after the government’s weekly health meeting concerning Covid-19.
“We cannot let our guard down,” he said.
“In Occitanie and in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, we are sometimes seeing marked increases in the circulation of the virus.”
Mr Attal said the reproduction rate had returned to above 1 in some areas, "which means that the epidemic is once again gaining ground."
The situation was particularly concerning in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, where the number of cases have increased by nearly 80% in one week, and to a lesser extent in Charente-Maritime, Lot-et-Garonne, Charente, Les Landes and Gironde.
He said that this was an alert that should not be ignored.
Despite Mr Attal’s comments, the number of cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people in both regions is lower than the national average.
Occitanie has an average of 71 cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people and Nouvelle-Aquitaine has 72. The national average is 91.
In general, the number of new Covid-19 cases in France is decreasing. An average of 8,742 were reported each day in the past week, a decrease of 27% from the previous week, figures on Covidtracker.fr show.
Mr Attal said that 50% of all adults in France had now received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.
There are also now fewer than 3,000 people in intensive care units due to Covid-19, a drop of 18% from the week before.
Ile-de-France has the highest number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 people in metropolitan France, with 119.
Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur has the lowest, at 61 cases per 100,000 people.
Read more:
Covid France updates June 2: Moderna jab, holiday vaccines and more
Covid France: Alert as people relax guard and catch Covid after jab
Income Tax in France 2023 (for 2022 income)*
Visa and residency cards for France*
