Deaths from the new coronavirus in France passed 28,000 on Sunday, the health ministry announced, as officials tried to contain outbreaks in two abattoirs, reports Channel News Asia.
The latest daily toll, of 483, the largest in several weeks, was made up mainly of deaths in care homes - 429 deaths, compared to only 54 in hospital.
Those numbers took France's total number of deaths from the virus to 28,108.
France's health directorate, the DGS, was not able to tell AFP why there had been a sudden rise in the figures for deaths at care homes.
The figures had been updated from those provided by the regional health authorities, they said.
The figure for care home deaths have been corrected several times in recent days, reflecting the challenges officials face in collecting and collating the data.
Health officials meanwhile were battling to contain two outbreaks of the virus at abattoirs that are so far known to have infected around a hundred people.
One abattoir is in the central Val de Loire region near the city of Orléans. The other is in the northwestern region of Brittany.
Regional health officials said 63 of the 209 workers at the Breton slaughterhouse had so far tested positive for the virus.