France reports 23,770 coronavirus cases, 348 deaths in 24 hours

France's Public Health Agency said on Thursday that it has registered 23,770 new COVID-19 infections and 348 deaths in hospital.

The country has to date recorded a total of 3,130,629 COVID-19 cases and 74,800 deaths related to the disease.

The Ministry of Health also said that 1,349,517 injections had been carried out since the start of the vaccination campaign, including 117,734 in 24 hours.

The regions of Ile-de-France, Hauts-de-France and Bourgogne-Franche-Comte said Thursday that the appointments for a first injection of the vaccine against COVID-19 would be postponed due to difficulties of supply of Pfizer doses.

With its gradual vaccination, France is racing to counter a resurgence in COVID-19 infections fuelled by more infectious variants, although many fear that doses shortfall and delivery delay may throw a spanner into the government's vaccination rollout.

The government is considering to impose additional measures in the coming days to halt the alarming surge in the new variants.

In a weekly press conference earlier on Thursday, Health Minister Olivier Veran said that the health situation was getting worse as "the variants are actively circulating in France" despite all the devices the government has already used.

"The fact that the variants are still spreading suggests that the curfew and all the measures are certainly useful but probably insufficient," Veran said.

Prime Minister Jean Castex said that a debate and a vote would be orgzed in the Assembly and the Senate next week, if a new containment was decided by the executive.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 236 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Orgzation on Jan. 26. (/Xinhua)

( With inputs from ANI )