The coronavirus is spreading through France faster than at the peak of the first wave in spring, Reuters quoted a government scientific advisor as saying on Friday, in one of the starkest alerts yet about the scale of the resurgence engulfing Europe.

France reported 41,622 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday, a new daily record, and will break through the 1,000,000 cumulative tally on Friday — a grim milestone for the government as it and other European capitals battle to keep their economies open.

The warning from epidemiologist Arnaud Fontanet came as the country’s finance minister said the economy was likely to shrink again in the fourth quarter as a result of the nightly curfews and other restrictions imposed to tame the virus.

“The virus is circulating more quickly than in the spring,” Fontanet, who sits on the Scientific Council advising the government on its Covid response, told BFM TV.