France on Wednesday reported its highest daily number of deaths from Covid-19 since the coronavirus epidemic began, saying 509 more people had died in hospital to bring the toll to 4,032, AFP reports.

There are now 24,639 people hospitalised in France with Covid-19, with 6,017 of them in intensive care, health official Jerome Salomon told reporters in his daily update. The death toll on Tuesday had risen by 499.

The French figures include only those who died in hospital and not those who died at home or in old people's homes.

The number of confirmed cases also rose by 4,861 to 56,989. Many cases however go unregistered because of a lack of testing equipment.