France records over 10,000 Covid cases in 24 hours for first time

Paris: French health authorities reported 10,561 new confirmed COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a new daily record as the number topped 10,000 for the first time.

Saturday's record figure came after French Prime Minister Jean Castex warned on Friday that there has been a "clear worsening" in France of the spread of COVID-19, which has "not lowered in intensity" and "will still be with us for some months".

A previous record of 9,843 new infections had been reported on Thursday.

Despite this resurgence in cases, Castex did not announce any major new restrictions, saying France's aim is to "avoid a general lockdown" and succeed in living with the virus through social distancing, mask-wearing and ramped-up testing.

Castex said his government would implement fast-tracked COVID-19 testing for priority cases and provide local authorities with the power to make some businesses reduce opening hours. There is a "clear worsening" in France of the spread of COVID-19, which has "not lowered in intensity" and "will still be with us for some months", Castex said in a televised statement in Paris.

But he did not announce any major new restrictions, saying France's aim is to "avoid a general lockdown" and succeed in living with the virus through social distancing, mask-wearing and ramped-up testing.

Castex said his government would implement fast-tracked COVID-19 testing for priority cases and provide local authorities with the power to make some businesses reduce opening hours. The country's Defence Council met on Friday to discuss new measures to stem the spread of the virus, while experts say that tough measures will have to be taken to stem the resurgence in cases.

Jean-François Delfraissy, who heads the scientific panel counselling the French government on Coronavirus matters, said on Wednesday that the government would be "obliged to take a certain number of difficult decisions... in the next eight to 10 days at most".

Meanwhile, the overall number of global Coronavirus cases has topped 28.6 million, while the deaths have increased to over 918,000, according to the Johns Hopkins University.

As of Sunday morning, the total number of cases stood at 28,650,588 and the fatalities rose to 918,796, the University's Center for Systems Science and Engineering (CSSE) revealed in its latest update.

The US accounted for the world's highest number of cases and deaths at 6,482,503 and 193,670 respectively, according to the CSSE.

India is currently in the second place in terms of cases at 4,659,984, while the country's death toll stood at 77,472.

In terms of cases, Brazil ranks third (4,315,687), and is followed by Russia (1,053,663), Peru (716,670), Colombia (702,088), Mexico (663,973), South Africa (648,214), Spain (566,326), Argentina (546,481), Chile (432,666), France (402,811), Iran (399,940), the UK (367,592), Bangladesh (336,044), Saudi Arabia (325,050), Pakistan (300,955), Turkey (289,635), Iraq (286,778), Italy (286,297), Germany (260,817), Philippines (257,863), Indonesia (214,746), Ukraine (155,558), Israel (152,722), Canada (138,163), Bolivia (125,172), Qatar (121,523), Ecuador (116,451), Kazakhstan (106,729), Dominican Republic (103,092), Romania (102,386), Panama (101,041) and Egypt (100,856), the CSSE figures showed.

The other countries with over 10,000 deaths are the Brazil (131,210), Mexico (70,604), the UK (41,712), Italy (35,603), France (30,902), Peru (30,470), Spain (29,747), Iran (23,029), Colombia (22,734), Russia (18,426), South Africa (15,427), Chile (11,895), Argentina (11,263) and

Ecuador (10,864).