More COVID-19 restrictions may be needed in France if situation worsens: government adviser

FILE PHOTO: People walk on the Promenade des Anglais in Nice, as France's 16 hardest-hit departments go into a new month-long lockdown imposed to slow the rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) contagion, France March 20, 2021. REUTERS/Eric Gaillard

More restrictions aimed at tackling the COVID-19 pandemic may be needed for France, if the current measures do not result in the situation improving, French epidemiologist and government scientific adviser Arnaud Fontanet told BFM TV on Tuesday.

Last week, France imposed a month-long lockdown on Paris and parts of the north after a faltering vaccine rollout and spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants forced President Emmanuel Macron to shift course.

(Reporting by Sudip Kar-Gupta; Editing by Alex Richardson)