France warns of impending coronavirus crisis

French Prime Minister Édouard Philippe warned on Saturday that "the first 15 days of April will be even more difficult than the last 15 days which have just passed" in France's coronavirus crisis.

"The fight has only just begun," he added.

French health minister Olivier Véran added that the country wants to increase its intensive care bed capacity from 5,000 currently to 14,000.

According to the latest data, France confirmed 319 deaths from COVID-19, raising the toll to 2,314. The total count is 37,575.

Earlier, France extended the lockdown by two weeks to April 15.

The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) emerged in late 2019 in China's Hubei province, and the virus has spread to over 199 countries and territories since then.

To date, over 664,000 COVID-19 cases have been reported around the globe, resulting in more than 30,000 deaths.

On February 11, the WHO officially named the 2019 novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) as Covid-19, and on March 11, declared it a pandemic.