France : France’s Covid-19 death toll passed the 100,000 mark on Thursday, April 15, and a further jump in intensive care (ICU) admissions was also reported in the past 24 hours, suggesting that the coronavirus continues to spread unabated.

Government figures showed 296 new deaths in one day, bringing the total number of fatalities to 100,073, Xinhua news agency reported.

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units increased by 22 to 5,924 in total. The country initially had only 5,100 resuscitation beds. Some 30,668 people with Covid-19 remained hospitalized, down by 200 in a single day. Since the start of the pandemic, over 5.18 million people in France have been infected with the virus, with 38,045 new cases confirmed in the past 24 hours. As of Thursday, France has vaccinated nearly 12 million people (22.8 per cent of the adult population) with a first shot and 4.26 million with both shots.

UK records another 2,672 coronavirus cases

Another 2,672 people in Britain have tested positive for Covid-19, bringing the total number of coronavirus cases in the country to 4,380,976, according to official figures released on Thursday, April 15. The country also reported another 30 coronavirus-related deaths. The total number of coronavirus-related deaths in Britain now stands at 127,191. These figures only include the deaths of people who died within 28 days of their first positive test, Xinhua news agency reported.

More than 32.4 million people have been given the first jab of the coronavirus vaccine, according to the latest official figures. Latest data have also revealed the number of people in England waiting to begin hospital treatment has risen to a new record high in February this year. Figures from National Health Service (NHS) England showed a total of 4.7 million people were waiting for routine operations or procedures at the end of February — the highest figure since records began in August 2007. Experts have warned that despite progress in vaccine rollout, Britain is “still not out of the woods” amid concerns over new variants and the third wave of pandemic in the European continent. Professor Kevin Fenton, London’s regional director of Public Health England (PHE), said Thursday that further genetic sequencing of positive tests had detected more cases in London of the variant that first emerged in South Africa.