People enjoy the sunshine in front of the Sacre Coeur Basilica atop the Montmartre in Paris, France, Feb. 24, 2021. (Xinhua/Gao Jing)

The number of people who lost their lives to the coronavirus increased by 322 to reach 87,542, the seventh highest in the world.

PARIS, March 3  -- A total of 3,810,316 people in France have been diagnosed with COVID-19 after 26,788 positive cases were confirmed in the past 24 hours, the biggest daily increase since Feb. 24, official figures showed on Wednesday.

The number of people who lost their lives to the coronavirus increased by 322 to reach 87,542, the seventh highest in the world.

The number of hospitalized patients fell by 152 within a day to 25,111, while the number of serious cases rose again by 51 to 3,637, taking up 70 percent of the country's 5,100 resuscitation beds.

These data marked "not an exponential rise but a continuous and worrying increase," government spokesperson Gabriel Attal said early Wednesday after a weekly cabinet meeting.

"Vaccinating the most vulnerable is protecting hospitals, is to give us a chance to be able to ease as quickly as possible the restrictions which weigh on our daily life," Attal told reporters.