France's daily COVID-19 cases set new record

PARIS - France reported on Tuesday its highest daily record of COVID-19 infections since the outbreak of the pandemic, with 368,149 new cases detected in the last 24 hours.

According to data released by the French Public Health Agency, a total of 23,371 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized, with 3,969 of these in intensive care.

French Minister of Education Jean-Michel Blanquer said during an interview with French media that a total of 10,000 schools are closed. Meanwhile, about 50,000 COVID-19 cases have been detected in schools.

The country's Prime Minister Jean Castex announced on Monday a new obligation for children to do a self-test before attending school on the first day after being in close contact with a COVID-19 infected child.

"Our choice, for the schools and for the country, is to get vaccinated and tested instead of closing," said Castex.

French government spokesperson Gabriel Attal announced Tuesday morning that the government wants to put pressure on the unvaccinated.

According to the French Health Ministry, more than 53 million people have been vaccinated against COVID-19 in France, which is almost 80 percent of the population.

As for the booster campaign, more than 29 million doses have been administered, official figures show.