Explained: Why France reports 65,000 Covid-19 cases today
An average of just under 30,000 cases have been reported each day in the past week
France’s national health agency Santé Publique France (SPF) today reports that 65,373 new Covid-19 cases had been recorded in the past 24 hours. This is more than double the usual daily number of cases which have been averaging 29,280 in the past week.
It is not, however, due to a surge in Covid-19 cases but rather the result of a technical fault.
Yesterday (March 24), SPF experienced a technical problem with data flow to their database, meaning that they could not publish the daily number of recorded Covid-19 cases as usual.
Today’s figure is therefore the number of cases from Monday (37,572 cases) and Tuesday (24,882 cases) combined - case numbers are always reported one day behind. Some additional cases recorded prior to that may also have been added to the overall number.
SPF states, “It should therefore not be interpreted as an exponential increase in the number of daily cases, although a general upward trend is nevertheless observed.”
The average number of daily reported cases of Covid-19 has increased by 17% in the past week, data tracking website Covidtracker.fr shows. See the progression of daily Covid-19 cases in France in the graph below.
The Connexion publishes the number of daily reported Covid-19 cases in our article Coronavirus: Daily updates on the situation in France, which can be found on our homepage.
It is useful to show this figure as it is taken into consideration when the government assesses whether to increase or relax restrictions.
However, as was the case today, this figure can fluctuate considerably depending when the data is added up and also the number of tests being carried out in France.
A more accurate way to follow the progress of the pandemic, then, is to look at the rate of positive tests - this is the percentage of people who test positive out of all the tests being carried out.
As the figure today remained at 7.9%, the same as yesterday, it is clear that the large jump in daily cases is just an aberration.
You can read our article explaining this statistic and what indicators are best to follow the pandemic in France by clicking the link below.
Are rises in positive cases in France due to more tests?
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