France has registered 40,558 new coronavirus cases, compared with 36,330 a day earlier and a record of 52,518 on Monday, health ministry data showed.

The total number of cases increased to 1,543,321 but the ministry added that the number of new cases was a minimum number that could increase due to problems with data gathering.

The ministry also reported that the number of people who have died from the virus increased by 385 to 38,674, compared with 854 on Tuesday but those numbers included a multi-day batch of 428 deaths in retirement homes. The ministry said there were 394 new deaths in hospitals over the past 24 hours.