Cancelled by Norwegian firm

Pressure is growing on the government to mandate outdoor mask use on a national level, too.

France is seeing an uptick in coronavirus infections, with hundreds of new clusters in recent weeks.

France has reported 7,000 new cases in the last week, after bringing the virus nearly under control with a strict two-month nationwide lockdown, and has confirmed 30,265 virus-related deaths since the pandemic began.

Elsewhere, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said an advance team looking into the origins of the coronavirus outbreak has concluded its mission in China, and the UN health agency has agreed to details of the deployment of a larger team.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the “international team” will deploy to Wuhan, the city where the Covid-19 pandemic is believed to have erupted late last year.

Dr Tedros said “terms of reference” have been drawn up by the WHO and China, but he did not specify.

Dr Michael Ryan, the WHO’s emergencies chief, noted “gaps in the epidemiological landscape” and said the proper studies and data to collect would be assessed.

“The real trick is to go to the human clusters that occurred first and then to work your way back systematically looking for that first signal at which the animal human species barrier was crossed,” Dr Ryan said.

“Once you understand where that the barrier was breached, then you move into the studies in a more systematic way on the animal side,” he added.