France on Friday became the second western European country to record more than one million coronavirus cases after Spain.

According to health authorities, 42,032 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours taking the national total to 1,041,075 cases.

However, due to insufficient testing, asymptomatic cases and other mitigating factors, experts believe the actual numbers of infections and deaths are probably much higher.

President Emmanuel Macron earlier on Friday warned that "the epidemic is very strongly accelerating".

On Thursday, prime Minister Jean Castex announced that a curfew imposed by the government last week in nine cities will be extended to an additional 38 departments for six weeks due to the rapid spread of the virus.

The new order, which will affect an estimated 46 million people, took effect from midnight on Friday and persons in the affected areas will have to stay at home between 9pm and 6am.

France has also reported one of the highest death tolls in Europe with more than 34,000 deaths recorded.

France is one of four countries which have been identified as current coronavirus hot spots on the continent. The others are the UK, Russia and Spain.

(With input from agencies)