In the past 24 hours, 9,843 new cases were confirmed, bringing the country's total number of Covid-19 cases to 353,944, data released by the country's Health Ministry showed on Thursday, Xinhua reported.

As of Thursday, the number of hospitalised Covid-19 patients rose by 352 to 5,096, of whom 615 needed intensive care, up by 54 from Wednesday. The country also registered 19 additional coronavirus-related fatalities in a 24-hour period, bringing the death toll to 30,813.

Early on Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron said he would announce new measures at a defense council on Friday to contain the epidemic resurgence while allowing people to live as normal as possible.

French scientists had expected a second wave of the coronavirus could hit the country in autumn or winter as a result of social mixing and absence of distancing and barrier measures during the summer holidays.

They asked authorities to anticipate all the possible scenarios and prepare a prevention plan for the country's most populated metropolitan areas, and to consider local lockdown according to the epidemic situation.