By Sudip Kar-Gupta and Matthias Blamont

PARIS (Reuters) – French Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Friday his government was not planning a new, nationwide lockdown to contain a resurgence in COVID-19 cases, but would instead implement a raft of less radical measures.

He said these would include fast-tracked COVID testing for priority cases, and giving local authorities the power to make some businesses reduce opening hours.

The French government is under renewed pressure to curb the spread of the disease as the country faces a sharp spike of infections since the beginning of the month.

Health authorities reported 9,843 new confirmed coronavirus cases on Thursday, beating by almost 900 a previous record of 8,975, set six days earlier.

In March, France had imposed a strict lockdown. That succeeded in preventing the hospital system from being overwhelmed by COVID cases, but also dealt a severe blow to the economy. That lockdown was relaxed towards the start of May.

(Writing by Christian Lowe; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)

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