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Coronavirus death toll in France tops 10,000

The coronavirus death toll in France has passed 10,000.

France’s national health director Jerome Salomon said the number of dead had climbed to more than 10,300.

He said: “We are in the epidemic’s ascendant stage. We have not yet reached the peak.”

But Mr Salomon offered a glimpse of hope, saying the virus rate is ”slowing a little”.

To keep up social distancing, Paris banned daytime jogging just as the warm spring weather settled in.

The deserted bridge going to Notre Dame cathedral
The deserted bridge going to Notre Dame cathedral (AP/Thibault Camus)

Authorities in the capital banned all outdoor sports activities between 10am and 7pm after Parisians took to the streets in numbers over the weekend to enjoy the sunny weather.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo and police prefect Didier Lallement said Parisians should limit their movement to urgent or indispensable outings amid stringent coronavirus lockdown measures implemented across the country.

Starting on Wednesday, Parisians can only exercise outdoors when “street crowd is at its lowest”.

Parisians were previously allowed to exercise outdoors for an hour while carrying a form explaining the reason why they were going out.