Global coronavirus death toll now over 100,000 according to Johns Hopkins University.
Meanwhile, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte has extended Italy’s nationwide lockdown until 3 May.
The first nationwide lockdown was imposed on 9 March until 3 April but was later extended to 13 April.
The tight lockdown in Italy appears to be working. Its latest 24-hour death toll is 570, continuing a declining trend.
But Italy still has the world’s highest overall death toll, which currently stands at 18,849.
France has reported 987 more deaths of people who had coronavirus.
The total death toll in France has now risen to 13,197.
However, the number of patients in intensive care fell for the second day in a row, top health official Jérôme Salomon told reporters, describing the trend as a “ray of sunshine”.
Deaths increased by 554 to 8,598 in hospitals and by 433 to 4,599 in homes for the elderly and dependant, he said.
France has the third highest coronavirus death toll in the world, surpassed only by Spain and Italy.
A tally by Johns Hopkins University says there are more than 118,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus in France, the fifth highest in the world.
