France number of new COVID-19 cases down, casualties up

French health authorities on Monday reported 4,070 new COVID-19 infections over the past 24 hours, sharply down from Saturday's third-highest ever tally of 14,412 and Sunday's 11,123.

The Monday figure always tend to dip as there are fewer tests conducted on Sundays.

The seven-day moving average of new infections, which smoothes out reporting irregularities, stood at 12,083, above the 12,000 threshold for a fourth day in a row, versus a low of 272 on May 27, two weeks after the country ended its two-month-long lockdown.

The number of people in France who have died from COVID-19 infections rose by 81 to 31,808, versus 27 on Sunday. The cumulative number of cases now totals 542,639.