The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 80 to 26,310 on Saturday, the health ministry said, a much smaller daily increase than the previous day when it was 243.
The ministry said the number of people in intensive care units - a key measure of a health system's ability to deal with the epidemic - fell by 56, or about 2%, to 2,812. That is less than half the peak of 7,148 seen on April 8.
The number of people in hospital with the coronavirus also fell, to 22,614 from 22,724, continuing an uninterrupted three-week fall, and down 30% from an April 14 peak of 32,292.
France will start lifting its almost two-month-old national lockdown from Monday.