PARIS (Reuters) -The cumulative total for confirmed COVID-19 cases in France for the reason that begin of the pandemic has handed 20 million, well being ministry information confirmed on Thursday.

The well being ministry registered 274,352 new infections on Thursday, pushing the total to 20.15 million, Reuters calculations confirmed. The cumulative demise toll is sort of 132,000.

The well being ministry has not printed the total quantity of infections since mid-January, when it stood at simply over 14 million. Since then, the seven-day common of new infections has held at over 300,000 per day, including a couple of million new cases each three days.

The first few infections in France had been recorded on the finish January 2020. The seven-day common of new cases not often rose over 30,000 per day all through 2020 and 2021.

But the arrival of the extremely contagious Omicron variant in late 2021 pushed the seven-day common of new cases to greater than 100,000 a day simply after Christmas and the cumulative total of cases handed the ten million cases milestone on Jan. 1, 2022.

As the an infection price sped up, the seven-day common of new cases rose to a report excessive of over 366,000 per day on Jan. 25.

Since then, the rise has slowed and the common has now fallen again to slightly below 300,000, however France nonetheless recorded practically 10 millon new cases in January.

Health Minister (*20*) Veran mentioned earlier this week that the present wave appears to have peaked. He additionally mentioned {that a} confirmed an infection was equal to a COVID vaccine injection, supplied that one has had a minimum of one COVID shot.

Some 54 million of France’s greater than 67 million residents have now obtained a minimum of one vaccination jab.

The ministry doesn’t element what number of cases of double or triple an infection may be included in its tally of cases.

(Reporting by Geert De ClercqEditing by Chris Reese and Frances Kerry)