Paris, May 9 (IANS): With 243 people losing their lives to the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, France saw its pandemic toll rise to 26,230, while the numbers of people hospitalized and admitted into intensive care continued to decline.

To date, a total of 16,497 people have died in hospitals and 9,733 in nursing homes and other communal living institutions, said the Ministry of Health in a press release on Friday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The pressure on hospitals continued to ease as the number of patients listed in serious condition fell to 2,868 from 2,961 on Thursday. A total of 22,724 people are now hospitalized with the virus, a decrease of 484 within one day.

Across the country, 138,421 cases of COVID-19 infection have been confirmed, 642 more than on Thursday. Since the start of the pandemic, 55,782 people have recovered from the virus.

After another weekend in lockdown, French people will gradually start to resume their "normal" life from Monday with some shops and schools reopening.