PARIS

French health authorities said the country has reached over 1.04 million confirmed coronavirus cases, becoming the second country in Western Europe after Spain to reach that number of known infections.

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In the past 24 hours, the country confirmed 42,032 new cases on Friday, beating Thursday`s record of 41,661, Xinhua news agency reported.

The overall caseload currently stands at 1,084,659.

The death toll increased to 34,508, representing a one-day spike of 298, higher than 162 on Thursday.

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The number of hospitalized Covid-19 patients reached 15,008, up by 976 in one day, exceeding the 15,000 thresholds for the first time since May 25.

To date, 2,073 clusters are under investigation, of which 477 are in nursing homes. This represents 184 additional outbreaks in 24 hours.

The "grave" resurgence of the epidemic has forced the government to extend curfews, imposed on Paris and eight other major cities, to 38 other departments.

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The restrictive measure now involves 46 million residents who have been asked to stay home from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. from Friday midnight.

Since the end of September when infection cases soared up, France had already put in place extra measures in regions on maximum alert, including the closure of bars, pools and gyms.

Meanwhile, the worldwide number of confirmed COVID-19 cases has surpassed 42 million, Johns Hopkins University says.

The exact number of coronavirus cases stood at 42,020,333. More than 1.14 million people have died of the disease, the university added.

The World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak a pandemic on March 11. The biggest number of cases so far have been registered in the United States, India and Brazil.

(With inputs from agencies)