France's health minister has urged the country not to drop its guard against Covid-19, saying it faced a long battle and that observing social distancing rules was vital to avoiding a new national lockdown, Reuters reported.

“We are not facing a second wave, the epidemic is continuing [...]. Some people do not respect the rules. We must not let down our guard,” Health Minister Olivier Veran told LCI television.

“We do not want to resort to another lockdown, we are examining the situation on a case-by-case basis. The war is not over [...] People must understand that we are going to live with this virus for a fairly long time.”