Thursday, France officially surpassed 100,000 coronavirus deaths, after recording more than 300 deaths in the last 24 hours, according to health authorities. 

France is the third country in Europe to cross the 100,000 mark of COVID-19 deaths, after the United Kingdom and Italy.

Worldwide, the United States has the largest death toll, with more than half a million cases, followed by Brazil.

France is facing a third epidemic wave, and the number of patients who have been admitted to intensive care has exceeded 5,900 patients in recent days, the highest number since the spring of 2020.

Opposition parties accuse French President Emmanuel Macron of letting the crisis out of control by repeatedly rejecting doctors' calls to impose a third nationwide lockdown, until he finally agreed to close schools on April 3.

France is also under criticism for its relatively slow vaccination campaign.

While the pace of vaccination has accelerated in recent weeks, France is still far behind several countries, including Britain.

So far, the number of doses received as part of the vaccination campaign in France has reached 15.75 million, compared to 40.96 million in Britain.