Weekly coronavirus death toll in French nursing homes doubles to 73

French health workers attend a protest in front of the CHU hospital in Nantes

PARIS (Reuters) - The number of people who died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 111 to 29,547 on Tuesday with the health ministry including weekly data for the death toll in nursing homes.

The number of people who died in hospitals increased by 38 to 19,090 on Tuesday, compared to 29 on Monday and an average of 25 over the past seven days.

The ministry also reported that in the past seven days 73 people died of the virus in nursing homes, more than double the 34 reported a week ago and the 23 reported two weeks ago.

The ministry said that the number of people in hospital for COVID-19 infections fell by 217 to 10,535 and the number of people in intensive care fell by 26 to 820. Both numbers have been on a downtrend for about 10 weeks.

The number of new coronavirus infections increased by 344 to 157,716, ministry data showed, compared to a seven-day average increase of 446.

(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Mark Heinrich)