The coronavirus outbreak has claimed another 753 lives in the last 24 hours in France, bringing the country's total fatalities to 17,920, AFP quoted top French health official Jerome Salomon as saying on Thursday.

But the number of virus patients hospitalised dropped by 474 and the number in critical care declined by 209, the health ministry's number two official said.

A staff member of the Korian Vill'Alize EHPAD (Housing Establishment for Dependant Elderly People) in Thises, eastern France, speaks with a resident in the garden of the retirement home, on April 16, 2020 during the 31st day of a strict confinement in France aimed at curbing the Covid-19 disease. Due to the measures taken by the government to stop the spread of the virus, elderly people living the retirement home don't receive any visits from their relatives. — AFP
A staff member of the Korian Vill'Alize EHPAD (Housing Establishment for Dependant Elderly People) in Thises, eastern France, speaks with a resident in the garden of the retirement home, on April 16, 2020 during the 31st day of a strict confinement in France aimed at curbing the Covid-19 disease. Due to the measures taken by the government to stop the spread of the virus, elderly people living the retirement home don't receive any visits from their relatives. — AFP

“The spread of the virus is stabilising at a high level,” he said.

Among the dead were 11,060 who died in hospitals and 6,860 in care homes or other establishments, he said.

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