A school staff member distributes hand-cleansing gel among students returning from Halloween break in Antibes, southern France, Nov. 2, 2020. (Photo by Serge Haouzi/Xinhua)

The total number of confirmed cases went up by a record 86,852 from the 1,661,853 registered on Friday. But French health authorities did not specify whether the massive spike of cases was all confirmed in the past 24 hours.

PARIS, Nov. 7  -- France's cumulative number of confirmed COVID-19 cases since the outbreak of the epidemic stood at 1,748,705 and the total number of COVID-19-related fatalities topped 40,000, the Public Health Agency said on Saturday.

A further 306 people had lost their lives to the virus, raising the death toll to 40,169, the agency added.

The total number of confirmed cases went up by a record 86,852 from the 1,661,853 registered on Friday. But French health authorities did not specify whether the massive spike of cases was all confirmed in the past 24 hours.

"The entire flow of test results is re-established between the national SI-DEP collector (the country's digital tools for COVID-19 screening) and Public Health France. The correction of the figures as well as the analysis of the weekly indicators are in progress and will be published on Monday (Nov. 9)," the national public health agency said on its website.