France confirms slow decline in COVID-19 fatalities, hospital cases

France's Director General of Health Jerome Salomon on Sunday confirmed "a slow decline" in the spread of coronavirus after the updated data on the epidemic indicated decelerating cases in hospitals and fatalities caused by the respiratory illness.

As of Sunday, the COVID-19 has claimed 19,718 fatalities compared with 19,323 registered a day earlier. That represents a single-day increase of 395, down from 642 on Saturday and 761 on Friday.

The number of hospitalized patients, at 30,610, remains high, but 29 less compared with Saturday's 30,639, consolidating a deceleration reported early this week.

On Sunday, the number of infected people who need intensive care dropped to 5,744, which is 89 less than Saturday's 5,833.

"The confinement is effective. It strongly curbs the epidemic," Salomon said.

Early this week, France extended a national lockdown, which was put in place in mid-March, by another four weeks till May 11. It plans to progressively ease restriction on people's movement when the confinement's second extension ended.