FDA schedules advisory meeting to discuss Covid vaccines for children under 12

A medical staff member holds a nasal swab as he collects samples from a person at a Covid-19 test site in Brest, France, in July 2020. Fred Tanneau/AFP via Getty Images

France has reported 3,292 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, the lowest number of confirmed cases since Dec. 28, official figures from the French government showed on Monday.

In an interview with Le Parisien on Monday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex said, “We are finally and durably exiting this health crisis. Of course, this exit will happen progressively, carefully and with constant monitoring. But the trend is clear, we’re reaching our goal and that’s good news.”

Asked whether France was sufficiently prepared to face a potential fourth wave, Castex said “nothing should ever be excluded” and the country had to remain “hyper vigilant, particularly through controlling the spread of variants, especially at borders and where people quarantine.”

He said these controls were among “the most stringent” in Europe.

Monday’s figures bring the total number of confirmed cases in France to over 5.7 million since the pandemic began, the fourth highest figure in the world after the United States, India and Brazil according to data from Johns Hopkins University.