French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian will begin self-isolating after coming into contact with a person in his family who has tested positive for COVID-19, a foreign ministry official said.
Le Drian, 73, was due to be tested on Thursday evening and would take a second test next Wednesday, a week after being in contact with the positive person.
The minister, who is also number two in the French cabinet, on Thursday hosted a meeting with his German, Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts on the Middle East process and met US climate envoy John Kerry for a bilateral meeting on Wednesday evening.
French Health Minister Olivier Veran said on Thursday the COVID-19 situation in the greater Paris region was especially worrying, with a high number of people in intensive care units (ICUs) for the disease.
During a weekly briefing, Veran said that if the pandemic continued at its current rhythm in the area, the government would take "the necessary measures" to rein it in.
The French health ministry said the number of people treated in intensive care units (ICUs) for COVID-19 across the country went up by 74, to 3,922, the highest for three and a half months.
There were 265 new deaths from the respiratory disease over the past 24 hours, taking the total to 89,830, the seventh-highest in the world, versus a seven-day daily moving average of 285.
The number of cases went up by 27,166, at 3.990 million, the world's sixth highest total, versus 30,303 Wednesday and 25,279 a week ago.
