France sees record surge in daily COVID cases to nearly 180,000

France posted a new record for daily coronavirus cases Tuesday, registering nearly 180,000 infections in the past 24 hours.  

According to data released by the country’s public health agency, 179,807 cases and 290 fatalities were recorded. The previous high was registered on Dec. 25 at 104,611 infections.

The cases have surpassed figures in Britain, which recorded 129,471 new infections as of Tuesday and reported more than 100,000 cases for the first time on Dec. 22 due to the highly contagious omicron variant and widespread testing.