France on Saturday decided to extend a health emergency imposed to fight the new coronavirus for two months until July 24, Health Minister Olivier Veran said.

A proposal to be put to parliament on Monday said the lifting this month of the emergency, which began on March 24, would "be premature" and "could see a risk of the outbreak" intensifying.

The number of people who have died from coronavirus infection in France rose by 218 to 24,594 on Friday, while hospitalizations for the disease and people in ICU units continued to decline, the public health chief said on Friday.

The death toll has increased 0.9 percent compared with Thursday, a lower rate of increase than over the previous 24 hours.

The number of people in hospital with the COVID-19 infection fell further to 25,887 from 26,283 on Thursday, and the number of people in intensive care fell to 3,878 from 4,019. Both numbers have been on a downward trend for more than two weeks.

(With input from AFP)

(Cover: A man wearing a mask to protect against the spread of the coronavirus walks in a street close to the Eiffel Tower in Paris, April 26, 2020. /AP)