On days following a public holiday - as New Year's Day was - new reported cases tend to dip, so the sharp drop does not necessarily indicate a change of trend.
The seven-day moving average of new cases in France, which smoothes out daily reporting irregularities, reached a new all-time high of 162,041, - jumping almost fivefold in a month.
(Reporting by Benoit Van Overstraeten; Editing by Alison Williams)
