France's daily COVID-19 cases top 40,000, more regions under curfew

France's Public Health Agency on Thursday evening reported 41,661 new COVID-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a new record after Saturday's 32,427, bringing the country's total number of confirmed cases to 999,043 with 34,210 deaths.

To stem the worsening resurgence of coronavirus which has been infecting some 30,000 additional people per day in recent weeks, the French government decided to introduce curfews in more regions on Thursday.

Prime Minister Jean Castex told the weekly briefing on the health situation on Thursday afternoon that starting from Friday midnight, curfews from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. will be extended to 38 more departments on France's mainland and the overseas territory of Polynesia.

Since Friday, curfews have been imposed on the Paris region and other eight big urban areas. People are not allowed to go out except for essential trips such as work or health emergencies.

With more regions under curfew, 46 million of France's 67 million residents are now requested to stay indoors at night.

As part of its strategy to combat the second wave epidemic, the government has ramped up testing capacity to 1.6 million tests per week without increasing the time to give results, Health Minister Olivier Veran said at the briefing.