(Updates with data from Saturday)
PARIS, March 20 (Reuters) – The number of people in intensive care units with COVID-19 in French hospitals has increased from 66 to 4,353, a new 2021 record, the health ministry said on Saturday.
The number of new positive cases maintained a steady upward trend, from 35,327 to 4.25 million, after an increase of 35,088 on Wednesday.
The cumulative number of deaths from the virus increased by 185 to 92,167, compared with an increase from 285 on Thursday.
In a separate statement, the ministry said that by Saturday 6.14 million people had received the first vaccine COVID-19, representing 9.2% of the total population and 11.7% of the adult population.
Nearly a third of the French went into a month-long blockade on Saturday, while the government plans to contain the spread of the virus in the Paris region and parts of northern France. (Reporting by Sybille de La Hamaide and Jean-Michel Belot; Editing by Mark Potter and Richard Chang)
Our Standards: Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.