Virus under control, but still circulating: French government adviser

As France begins to lift the lockdown, Jean-Francois Delfraissy, the head of government's scientific advisory council said that "the virus is currently under control".

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"The virus is still circulating, in certain regions in particular... but it is circulating slowly," Delfraissy asserted.

According to the government, the Grand-Es, Auvergne-Rhone-Alpes, Hauts-de-France, and the capital city Paris have been the hardest hit with most cases reported from these regions. 

France was one of the countries badly hit with the virus in Europe with 189, 569 infected cases and over 29,000 deaths.

Delfraissy, however, informed that the country was reporting 1,000 new cases per day, down from around 80,000 in early March. 

The death toll in France in the last 24 hours was 44, according to the health ministry.

On June 2, France allowed restaurants to open after the country put on lockdown as the virus began to take hold. On Thursday, the country listed 1,163  serious cases of COVID-19 who are on ventilator support.

On Thursday, France cancelled Bastille Day military parade due to coronavirus for the first time since World War-II.