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France became the fourth country globally to report over 10,000 deaths after Italy, Spain and the United States.
The number of people who died from coronavirus infections in French hospitals climbed by 8 percent in a day to a cumulative total of 7,632, state health agency director Jerome Salomon told a news conference on Wednesday.
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But he added the day’s figures were incomplete as authorities were not able to register nursing homes data, which account for more than 30 percent of total fatalities, due to “technical problems.”
The total death toll, including Tuesday’s nursing homes’ figures, is up 5 percent at 10,869.
Currently 30,000 infected people are hospitalized in the country, including 7,131 patients in intensive care, said Salomon at a daily briefing on the outbreak.
On Monday, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire warned that France's growth would likely record its worst post-war downturn after the coronavirus epidemic has taken a toll on the country's economic activities.
Speaking at a hearing of the Senate's economic affairs committee, Le Maire said France was facing its major "economic shock" since the end of the World War II.
"The worst growth figure that has been made by France since 1945 was in 2009 after the financial crisis of 2008: it was at -2.2 percent," the minister said. "We will probably be at more than -2.2 percent this year."
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