France on Wednesday decided to re-impose a state of 'health emergency', according to news agency AFP. The decision comes less than 24 hours after French President Emmanuel Macron met senior cabinet ministers to discuss measures to contain further spread of Covid-19.

In a televised address on Wednesday, President Emmanuel Macron announced a nighttime curfew for Paris and eight other French cities. While specifying that these measures will restrict people from visiting restaurants and even private homes in the late evening and night, President Macron said, "We are going to have to deal with this virus until at least the summer of 2021."

Once these measures are in place, anyone found in violation of the nighttime curfew will face a fine of 135 euros (Rs 11,620). Macron added that repeat offenders will be fined more than 10 times that sum.

News agency AFP also quoted Emmanuel Macron as saying that 32 per cent of France's 5,000 intensive care places are currently occupied by Covid-19 patients. He went on to add that a proportion of the same needs to be brought down to "10 to 15 per cent".

The French President also acknowledged that the French phone app StopCovid did not yield the expected results.

Earlier on Monday, French Prime Minister Jean Castex had told media outlets that local lockdowns across the country cannot be ruled out. Prime Minister Castex's remarks came in the wake of authorities in Toulouse and Montpellier declaring 'maximum alert status' to contain the spread of infection.

Prior to this, Paris, Marseille and four other French cities had announced similar measures.

French President Emmanuel Macron's meeting with a new health defence council was prompted by a spike in the number of people being treated in intensive care units for Covid-19 across the country. The number of people being treated in intensive care units for Covid-19 in France was pegged at 1,539 on October 12.

Hours before the French government announced its decision to re-impose a state of health emergency, Martin Hirsch had told France24 that 90 per cent of intensive care beds in Paris and its suburbs could be filled by the end of next week. Martin Hirsch is the head of APHP, a public hospital group which supervises 39 public hospitals in Paris and its suburbs.

The World Health Organisation's Covid-19 dashboard puts the number of confirmed cases of infection in France at 7,28,745 to date. This includes 32,679 patients who have succumbed to the virus in France as of October 14.