PARIS, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- More than 80,000 people have died from COVID-19 in France since the start of the pandemic, after 724 new deaths were recorded over the past 24 hours, according to official data released on Tuesday.
The national death toll now stands at 80,147, while the total number of infections rose by 18,870 within a day to 3,360,235.
The number of hospitalizations linked to COVID-19 remained high at 27,677, down by 370 from a day before. Some 3,342 patients still needed intensive care, down by 21.
As the world is struggling to contain the pandemic, vaccination is underway in some countries with the already-authorized COVID-19 vaccines. In France, more than 2.353 million vaccinations have been carried out since the start of the campaign in late December, according to the Health Ministry.
Meanwhile, 238 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 Feb. 2. Enditem
