France reported 22,046 coronavirus cases in the past 24 hours, slightly down from 22,371 a day before, according to data released on Sunday by the country's Public Health Agency.

To date, France has recorded 3,605,181 infections, the sixth-highest tally in the world.

The number of French people who have died from the virus rose by 160 to 84,306, compared to a single-day increase of 183 reported on Saturday.

In the Mediterranean city of Nice, the virus was circulating faster due to the spread of the variant that was first identified in Britain. The city's incidence rate is at 740 cases per week per 100,000 residents, the highest in the country.

"We need strong measures that go beyond the nationwide 6 p.m. curfew, either tighter curfew, or partial and time-specific confinement. A lockdown at the weekend would make sense," Mayor Christian Estrosi told France info radio early Sunday.

As of Feb. 19, France had offered the first dose of coronavirus vaccine to 2,535,436 people, while 1,132,918 have completed the two shots.

As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized coronavirus vaccines.

Meanwhile, 251 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 70 of them in clinical trials -- in countries including Germany, China, Russia, Britain and the United States, according to information released by the World Health Organization on Feb. 19.

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