PARIS: France has decided to extend an overnight curfew to dozens more areas in a bid to stem the spread of coronavirus.

The 21:00 to 06:00 curfew will come into force at midnight on Friday, and some 46 million people will now be affected by the measure.

Countries around Europe are struggling with rising infection rates.

France, Italy, Spain and the UK are all hotspots.

“The coming weeks will be hard and the number of deaths will continue to rise,” Mr Castex told a press conference on Thursday. Over the last 24 hours France recorded 162 more deaths.

“If we fail to stop the pandemic, we will be facing a dire situation and we will have to mull much tougher measures,” he added.

(With inputs from Agencies)