With 74 people dead in hospital from the disease in 24 hours, the death toll has exceeded 150,000 (150,017, including more than 121,000 in hospital). The 140,000 mark was crossed on March 11, two years after the start of the pandemic.

France is in its seventh wave of the epidemic, which started at the end of May, pushed by subvariants of Omicron. It is reflected in a sharp increase in contamination, while the circulation of the virus continues to intensify on the territory and the date of the epidemic peak remains uncertain.

Thursday evening there were more than 160,000 cases, with 17,719 hospitalized patients, including 1,523 new admissions.

According to the latest projections published by the Institut Pasteur, hospitalizations linked to Covid will rise further in the coming days, the researchers counting on some 1,700 daily hospital admissions by July 18, against around a thousand these days.

Friday in its weekly update, Public Health France reported a sharp increase in Covid reinfections, which now reach 12% of confirmed cases.

«The rise has been continuous since the arrival of the Omicron wave», commented Vincent Auvigne, epidemiologist at SpF.

Despite a high number of reinfections with an Omicron subvariant after a first infection with another Omicron subvariant (44% of cases), «the probability that a reinfection will actually occur after a first infection with a other variant (Alpha, Delta or other)» «remains significantly higher», underlines the agency.

And “the further the first contamination goes in time, the more the probability of reinfection will increase”, specified Mr. Auvigne.

The new Minister of Health, François Braun, spoke of the seventh wave of Covid at the time of the first departures on vacation, while wearing a mask is recommended, but not compulsory.

«I ask the French for this day of great departure on vacation to put on the mask on trains, on buses, in all places where we are a little on top of each other», he insisted.

All of the health restrictions were lifted in the spring, and the executive does not wish to put in place binding measures at this stage.