PARIS, Feb. 23 (Xinhua) -- French health authorities on Tuesday reported 20,064 new coronavirus infections over the past 24 hours, up from 4,646 on Monday and from 19,590 last Tuesday.

Since the outbreak, 3,629,891 people were diagnosed with COVID-19, the world's sixth highest tally after the United States, India, Brazil, Russia and Britain.

In the 24 hours, the respiratory illness had claimed 310 deaths in hospitals and 121 in nursing homes. The combined number of fatalities surged to 85,044, according to figures posted on the government's epidemic information website.

Admissions to hospital fell by 171 to 25,660 while those in intensive care units increased by 28 to 3,435, the highest level since early December 2020.

As of Sunday, France has administered more than 3.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines. Some 2,564,530 people had received a first jab, while 1,161,983 had also got a second dose, Health Ministry data showed.

At the first stage of its vaccination plan, the country aims to offer a shot to all over the age of 70, highly vulnerable people, and frontline medical staff and care workers.

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

Meanwhile, 255 candidate vaccines are still being developed worldwide -- 73 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 Tuesday.