MACRON TOYING WITH LOCKDOWN

Quizzed by journalists about a new nationwide lockdown, French president Emmanuel Macron said that “nothing, in theory, can be excluded", as the country battles against a new wave of COVID-19.

France registered over 7,000 new coronavirus infections on Friday, up from several hundred a day since levels recorded in May and June, according to Euronews.

This is partly because the number of coronavirus tests has raised, reaching 890,000 a week, with a "short-term" goal set for a million a week by Health Minister Olivier Véran.

But the rate of positive cases has nonetheless increased to 30 positive tests per 100,000 people in 20% of the country’s regions, a figure that was in the single digits a month ago.

The government also promised this week to further increase testing capacity — after coming under fire for shortages of masks and tests when the virus first ravaged France.