A French public health
official said there are 2,516 people needing life support.
Over the same 24-hour
period, Italy registered its second-highest number of deaths in a day as it
continues to be gripped by the COVID-19 pandemic.
France has become the fifth
country to report more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths - as another 743
people died from the disease in Italy.
The death toll in France
stands at 1,100, compared with 860 deaths yesterday - an increase of 240.
Officials said today that
743 people had died after testing positive, bringing the total to 6,820.
Italy has recorded more
coronavirus-related deaths than anywhere else in the world.
More than 69,000 people
have tested positive in Italy, with 5,249 new cases reported on Tuesday.
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Many of the deaths are in
the Lombardy region in the north, with the city of Bergamo the worst-hit.
But for two days running,
the percentage increase in the number of cases has stood at around 8% - the
lowest rise in percentage terms since the contagion in the country came to
light on 21 February.
Meanwhile, India has
announced a "total lockdown" of its population of 1.3 billion people
to save "every Indian".
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi said the measures would come in from midnight and initially last for three
weeks.
In a televised address, he
said: "To save India and every Indian, there will be a total ban on
venturing out of your homes."
He added that if the
country failed to manage the next 21 days, it would be set back 21 years.
Indian health officials
have so far reported 469 confirmed cases and 10 deaths.
It comes after a
spokeswoman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) said the US could soon see
a surge akin to those experienced across Europe.
More than 46,000 cases and
530 deaths have been reported in America, with more than 20,000 in New York
state alone.
Health officials and
leaders also warned the world is now hitting the stage that will determine how
badly each nation will be affected by COVID-19.
Countries in Europe and
North America are pressing ahead with stay-at-home restrictions which affect
1.5 billion people worldwide.
WHO chiefs say there is
still time to slow the spread of the virus.
The head of the
organisation, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said we are "not helpless
bystanders" and we can still "change the trajectory of this
pandemic".
In New York - one of the
world's biggest virus hotspots - authorities rushed to set up thousands of
hospital beds they will need to protect the city's 8.4 million people.
The city's hospitals are
around 10 days from shortages in basic supplies, while governor Andrew Cuomo
announced plans to convert a convention centre into a hospital.
"This is going to get
much worse before it gets better," he said.
Mr Cuomo also announced two
experimental medical interventions in a bid to battle back against the illness
before more sophisticated therapies are developed.
Health officials are
planning to collect plasma from people who have recovered after contracting coronavirus
and inject the antibody-rich fluid into patients still battling COVID-19.
Another therapy involves
antibody testing in order to send survivors back to work.
Mr Cuomo said the test
"shows promise", but added that it was "only a trial for people
who are in a serious condition".
Meanwhile, the number of
coronavirus deaths in Spain - the second worst-affected country in Europe -
rose by 514 to 2,696, with more than 6,000 new cases.
There have now been 39,673
confirmed cases there, up from 33,089 on Monday.
The virus has continued to
surge in Spain , forcing a nationwide lockdown that has closed shops and bars
and prevented more than 46 million people from leaving their homes.
Funeral homes have been
left well over capacity as hospitals struggle to cope.
An ice rink at the Palacio
de Hielo shopping mall in Madrid is now being used as a makeshift morgue.
Germany, however, has
indicated that its infection curve could have been flattened after it imposed
its own social distancing measures.
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