French health authorities are making Covid-19 tests available free of charge without prescription as they closely monitor an uptick in infections after the lifting of lockdown measures.

PCR nasal swab tests, which detect Covid-19 infections caused by the novel coronavirus, will be freely available on demand under government orders.

“We wouldn’t describe this as a second wave, but what’s clear is that for several days now we have seen a noticeable increase in the number of confirmed cases, which had been in decline for 13 weeks,” Health Minister Olivier Veran said in an interview.