According to data from the French Ministry of Health, the total number of verified COVID-19 cases in France since the start of the epidemic has surpassed 20 million.

According to Reuters calculations, the health ministry recorded 274,352 new illnesses on Thursday, bringing the total to 20.15 million. Nearly 132,000 people have died in all.

Since mid-January, when the overall number of illnesses reached at little over 14 million, the health ministry has not disclosed the entire number of infections. Since then, the seven-day average of new infections has remained above 300,000 per day, with about a million new cases being added every three days.

The first cases of illness in France were discovered around the end of January 2020. Throughout 2020 and 2021, the seven-day average of new cases seldom exceeded 30,000 per day.

However, the emergence of the highly infectious Omicron form in late 2021 increased the seven-day average of new cases to more than 100,000 per day right after Christmas, and the cumulative amount of cases surpassed 10 million on Jan. 1, 2022.

As the infection rate sped up, the seven-day average of new cases rose to a record high of over 366,000 per day on Jan. 25.

Since then, the increase has slowed and the average has now fallen back to just under 300,000, but France still recorded nearly 10 million new cases in January.

Health Minister Olivier Veran said earlier this week that the current wave seems to have peaked. He also said that a confirmed infection was equivalent to a COVID vaccine injection, provided that one has had at least one COVID shot.

Some 54 million of France’s more than 67 million citizens have now received at least one vaccination jab.

The ministry does not detail how many cases of double or triple infection might be included in its tally of cases.