Paris, Sep 3 (IANS): France has reported more than 7,000 coronavirus cases in 24 hours, the third time the single-day caseload surpassed this figure since the pandemic started in March, health authorities said.

On Wednesday, there were a total of 7,017 new cases, about 2,000 more than the previous day, reports Xinhua news agency.

The new figure, which took the overall nationwide caseload to 331,034, was close to the peak of 7,578 reported on March 31.

The test positivity rate, or the proportion of people tested positive compared with the total number of people tested, stood at 4.3 per cent, identical to the previous day.

Between Tuesday and Wednesday, 25 people died of the disease, bringing the toll to 30,686.

The number of Covid-19 patients hospitalized in intensive care continued to increase, with 22 additional people bringing the total to 446.

The number of outbreaks of infection, or "clusters", under investigation increased by 39 to 384.

General Directorate of Health (DGS) indicated that over the last seven days, more than a million tests (1,004,859) were carried out.