PARIS, Jan. 6 (Xinhua) -- A total of 25,379 people tested positive for COVID-19 in France in the past 24 hours, the highest daily tally in one week, while pressure on the country's hospitals continued to ease, the health authorities said on Wednesday.

The grand total of France's confirmed coronavirus cases was 2,705,618 on Wednesday, ranking the country sixth highest globally after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Britain.

Hospital admissions dropped by 163 to 24,741. That included 2,616 people in intensive care units, down from 2,625 on Tuesday.

Since the start of the outbreak, France has reported 66,565 coronavirus-related deaths. On Wednesday alone, 283 patients died.

On Dec. 27, 2020, France launched a vaccination campaign in three phases focusing first on nursing home residents and staff. Some 14 million people who suffer from chronic illnesses will be vaccinated starting from February. A broader vaccination campaign aimed at the general public is planned for the spring.

According to a survey conducted by pollster Elabe and released on Wednesday, 45 percent of the 1,002 respondents would refuse to be inoculated, and 75 percent disapproved of the government's vaccination program.

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

Meanwhile, 235 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 63 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 Jan. 6, 2021.