France reports record high of 179,807 new coronavirus cases in one day

France reported a record high of 179,807 new confirmed coronavirus cases in a 24-hour period on Tuesday, one of the highest one-day tallies worldwide since the start of the pandemic.

It is the highest number of new daily infections in Europe, according to data on Covidtracker.fr. Since the start of the pandemic, only the United States and India have reported average daily new cases above 200,000. On Monday, the United States reported more than 505,000 new Covid-19 cases.

Britain on Tuesday reported a record 129,471 new cases of Covid-19, but the data did not include figures for Scotland and Northern Ireland due to differences in reporting practices over the Christmas holiday period.

France's previous record of 104,611 was set on Saturday, after the 86,852 high of Nov. 11, 2020, was broken with two consecutive days of more than 90,000 new cases per day at the end of last week.

The seven-day moving average of new cases in France - which smoothes out daily reporting irregularities - rose to a new all-time high of 87,500. On Sunday and Monday, the health ministry reported only about 30,000 new cases per day.