Paris, Jan 14 (IANS): France has reported 23,852 new coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, the highest single-day tally since January 6, as more infectious variants circulate, posing growing risk of a rebound, health authorities data showed.

France's cumulative number of infections has grown to 2,888,292, with the deaths increasing to 69,168 after 229 patients died in the same period, Xinhua news agency.

Some 24,769 patients were hospitalised, of whom 2,711 are in intensive care units, up by 32 and 23 respectively.

On Wednesday, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the government's top scientific adviser, warned that "the coming three months will be difficult", notably due to the circulation of the highly infectious virus variant first detected in the UK.

"I am very concerned about this variant... If we do nothing, if a certain number of measures are not taken very quickly, we will have a spread of the variant," he told France info radio.

"The question is not to block it, but to slow it down."

Delfraissy expected "the situation will slightly improve during the spring but should really get better at the end of the summer".

About 47 cases of the variant were confirmed in France where the new strain accounted for an estimated 1 per cent of the Covid-19 infections, Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Tuesday during a hearing at the parliament.

As of Wednesday, more than 247,000 people in France have been vaccinated against Covid-19, according to data released by the Health Ministry.