More than 40,000 new cases diagnosed daily in France, a new high for the epidemic, said Castel.

The French neo-canopy outbreak continues to worsen. More than 40,000 new cases were diagnosed Thursday, the highest number since the outbreak began. The French Prime Minister, Jean-Claude Castet, called the situation “serious” and extended the 9:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew to 38 administrative regions.

The French Ministry of Health reported on Thursday evening that there have been 41,622 new cases diagnosed in France in the past 24 hours, which is 1.5 times more than the previous day and the highest number since the epidemic began. The total number of confirmed cases is nearly one million, at 999,043, and the proportion of confirmed infections has risen from 13.7% to 14.3%. In early September, the percentage of infections was only 4.5%. 165 new deaths were reported in 24 hours, bringing the total to 34,210. A key indicator of the epidemic, the number of critically ill patients increased by 1,627 in seven days, while the number of patients admitted to hospitals surpassed 10,166, reaching 10,166.

French Prime Minister Jean-Claude Castel announced Thursday that 38 administrative districts will be under a “9 p.m. to 6 a.m.” curfew, effective Friday at midnight for six weeks. The curfew was extended to the 54 departments of the French mainland and French Polynesia at midnight Friday and will remain in effect from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. in response to the neo-crowning epidemic. A total of 46 million people in France, or two-thirds of the country’s population, will be affected.

Castaic said Thursday that the current situation is very serious. November will be a trial phase, and deaths will climb, according to Castet. He warned that if the epidemic could not be stopped, France would face a serious situation in which more drastic measures would have to be taken. The Paris region and eight other metropolitan areas were the first to go under curfew last Saturday. The curfew could last up to 6 weeks.

So far, the French police have carried out 32,033 curfew checks and issued a total of 4,777 fines during the curfew period.