The Champs Elysees Avenue is seen in Paris, France, April 6, 2020, on the twenty-first day of a strict lockdown in France to stop the spread of COVID-19. (Photo: Xinhua)

Paris (People's Daily) -- France has now recorded a total of 10,328 COVID-19 deaths since March 1.

That number includes 7,091 in hospitals (+607 in 24 hours) and 3,237 in aged care homes (+820 in 24 hours), according to Jérôme Salomon, the director of France's public health agency.

“At the national level, excess mortality is stabilizing," Salomon noted at his daily press briefing on Tuesday evening.

After restating that Europe remains the epicenter of the pandemic, he said there are 7,131 patients being treated in intensive care, 61 percent of whom are between 60 and 80 years old, and 104 of whom are under 30 years of age.

There have been 19,337 healed since the start of the crisis, not counting tens of thousands of people who have recovered without going to hospital.

Currently, there are 78,167 cases of COVID-19 infections in hospital with an increase of 3,777 in the past 24 hours. Some 30,902 confirmed or possible cases have been recorded in aged care homes, taking France's total confirmed or possible COVID-19 cases to 109,069.

On Tuesday, as France entered its fourth week of lockdown, Paris toughened the confinement rules, announcing a ban on individual outdoor sports between the hours of 10am and 7pm starting Wednesday.