for solidarity and health, quit her job to help her husband in the coming municipal elections. she would be replaced only one month later. the same day, all the countries of the schengen area, except france, suspended the issuing of visas in china. les contamines-montjoie cluster on 8 february 2020, then-minister of health agnès buzyn confirmed five new cases which originated from a group of people who were on a holiday in les contamines-montjoie, haute-savoie. they contracted the infection from a british national who had attended a conference in singapore a few days before. another british national, who had stayed in the same chalet as the five other individuals at les contamines-montjoie, tested positive for covid-19. on 18 february 2020, minister of health, olivier véran – who replaced agnès buzyn after she stood down to run in the paris mayoral election for la république en marche! – announced that only four people remained infected in france. these four, all british nationals, three from the first group of les contamines-montjoie and a fourth case which was discovered later, underwent quarantine at the hospital. the last remaining british national was discharged six days later. sundry cases in late february 2020, multiple cases appeared in france, notably within three new clusters, in oise, haute-savoie, and morbihan. number of cases (blue) and number of deaths (red) on a logarithmic scale. on 25 february 2020, a french teacher from crépy-en-valois died; on the same day, a chinese man who had returned from china was confirmed as a carrier of sars-cov-2, but showed signs of recent recovery. a 64-year-old man from la balme-de-sillingy, who returned from a trip to lombardy on 15 february, tested positive for sars-cov-2 and was treated in centre hospitalier annecy-genevois, épagny-metz-tessy. his wife also tested positive and was admitted to the same hospital as her husband. on 26 february 2020, a 36-year-old man, who had made multiple trips to lombardy, tested positive and was treated in nouvel hôpital civil, strasbourg. a 60-year-old french teacher from oise was first admitted to creil hospital, then transferred to pitié-salpêtrière hospital, paris, where he died a few hours later. a 55-year-old man from oise was admitted to the intensive care unit at chu amiens-picardie, amiens. the same day, during an audition by the french senate, jérôme salomon, the french directeur général de la santé, declared that "a mask shortage is not a subject". on 27 february 2020, the minister of health olivier véran announced that france had 38 cases of covid-19 on its soil, with 20 new cases detected including a cluster in the oise caused by close contacts with patients that were infected in egypt. on 28 february 2020, one new case was confirmed, a 23-year-old fashion student from nice who had recently returned from milan. landes confirmed the first case of covid-19 in the region, a woman who tested positive at centre hospitalier de mont-de-marsan and underwent isolation. mulhouse cluster a religious week in mulhouse that took place from 17 to 24 february 2020 was involved in the rapid spread of the virus to eastern france and beyond. linked cases developed from early march in orléans, besançon, saint-lô, belfort, dijon, mâcon, agen, briançon, paris, corsica, and french guiana. the annual gathering of the christian open door church between 17 and 24 february 2020 in mulhouse which was attended by about 2,500 people became a significant cluster in the spread of coronavirus in france. alerted by a parishioner and by 18 family members who tested positive on 1 march, the pastor notified the health authorities. a man who lived alone in nîmes – and who had driven back alone from mulhouse and who otherwise had no close contacts – tested positive, and the flurry of reported cases locally on 2 march brought the existence of a mulhouse cluster to light. on 3 march 2020, seven participants in the evangelical rally – including five members of a local family and a general practitioner from bernwiller – had tested positive for the virus. starting on the evening of 3 march 2020, the local helpline of the emergency medical services recorded an unprecedented flood of distress calls, from people who had attended the gathering. according to an investigative report by radio france, at least half of the attendees had contracted the virus; in an interview on france info, the pastor of the church admitted that 2000 attendees may have been infected. it is said that no specific health advice existed in light of the threat at the time. the source of the initial infection has not been determined; furthermore, as different attendees were welcomed each day, and due to the absence of any attendance register, epidemiological follow-up subsequent to the discovery of attendees who tested positive was rendered impossible. even president emmanuel macron had spent several hours electioneering on 18 february 2020 in the bourtzwiller district close to the church. it was only on 2 march 2020 when the health authorities woke up to data that there was an outbreak all over the country linked to the religious meeting, by which time secondary infections had spread out of control. a radio france investigation identified that one nurse who had attended the event was the origin of a subsequent cluster in strasbourg at her workplace at the strasbourg university hospitals involving some 250 hospital colleagues. five returnees from the mulhouse rally were confirmed in french guiana on 4 march 2020. on 5 march 2020, a retired couple from lot-et-garonne and another person from deux-sèvres who had attended the same mulhouse gathering were declared positive for the disease. five new cases from this cluster were registered in corsica, and three in normandy. on 6 march 2020, with 81 cases that had been detected in the previous 24 hours in mulhouse, the departmental prefect declared that the means were no longer sufficient to systematically screen all suspected cases; only the most serious patients were to be hospitalised. the department of haut-rhin, in which mulhouse is situated, imposed strict limits on the gatherings; all schools were closed henceforth. repatriations on 31 january 2020, approximately 220 french returnees from china landed at istres-le tubé air base, aboard an airbus a340 from esterel 3/60 transport squadron stationed at creil air base. these evacuees were quarantined in a holiday camp in carry-le-rouet. a second wave of repatriation took place on 2 february 2020 when 65 evacuated french nationals on board a chartered airbus a380-800 hi fly malta landed at the istres air base. a third repatriation of 38 french occurred on 8 february 2020 under the auspices of the british government. on 21 february 2020, a further thirty french people who had been staying in wuhan were repatriated to france and placed in quarantine at branville, in the calvados. on 13 march 2020, twelve trainee gendarmes at the school of gendarmerie of tulle (corrèze) saw their internship in spain terminated, with them and their 20 companions repatriated. they had been confined from 10 march 2020 following the positive test results of two of their spanish cohort. municipal elections the first round of municipal elections in france took place on 15 march 2020 against the backdrop of the government decision to move to stage iii of measures to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. stringent restrictions on public life involving the closure of bars, restaurants and other businesses considered non-essential were set to begin the following day. then-health minister, agnès buzyn, resigned on 16 february 2020 to run for the paris mayor for la république en marche!. she is succeeded by olivier véran, a neurologist. the decision to press ahead with the election was justified as being critical to democratic life in the country, despite concerns about how a second round could be held as the toll of infections and deaths continued to rise. in the end, the turnout of registered voters was 40%, lower than achieved in 1971 – the previous record lowest turnout. a number of communes in various parts of the country reported that despite the safety measures put in place by the government, some candidates and assessors had subsequently developed symptoms or tested positive for the virus. lockdown measures in noisy-le-grand in the suburbs of paris, strolling along the river marne has been forbidden "until further notice" on 11 march 2020, the government named 11 prominent scientists to a committee to advise on scientific matters pertaining to the epidemic in france. on 17 march 2020, the direction générale de la santé (dgs) asked santé publique france to buy urgently 1,1 million of ffp2 masks. on 12 march 2020, emmanuel macron announced in a televised address that all schools and universities across the country would be closed. on 13 march 2020, the prime minister, édouard philippe announced the closure of all pubs, restaurants, cinemas and nightclubs. on 16 march 2020 (one day after the first round of the municipal elections), emmanuel macron announced the beginning of a lockdown period from 17 march 2020 at noon. after the announcement of the lockdown, the fédération française du bâtiment decided to stop non-essential work because of the danger for construction workers. on 19 march 2020, muriel pénicaud, the french minister of labour, criticized this decision, saying that it showed a lack of civic spirit. on 20 march 2020, the president of the federation replied in an open letter that what the minister said was "scandalous". after several days, an agreement allowing a few construction sites to reopen was signed. april–may 2020: first peak during early april 2020, the numbers of deaths from coronavirus increased dramatically, with more than 10,000 people dying during that period of time. the lockdown had initially been planned for 15 days, then for 30 days, but on 13 april 2020, macron announced that the lockdown period would be extended until 11 may 2020. on 4 may 2020, scientists retesting old samples found that a man had been infected with covid-19 on 27 december 2019, almost a month before france reported its first case. the patient had not travelled abroad which sparked fears that the coronavirus might have been spreading in europe earlier than leaders had thought. on 11 may 2020, as daily cases had dropped to under 100 per day, primary schools and some middle schools were allowed to reopen in what was the first steps to reopening the economy. on 28 may 2020, édouard philippe announced that a travel ban of 100 km (62 miles) would be lifted on 2 june 2020. cafes, bars and restaurants were also allowed to reopen on the same day. this easing of restrictions did not apply to paris. june–july 2020: easing of restrictions on 14 june 2020, cafes, restaurants and pubs were allowed to reopen in paris. on 22 june 2020, cinemas, holiday centres, sports halls for group sports, all crèches, schools, and collèges (middle school) were allowed to reopen in what was the third stage of reopening the economy. on 1 july 2020, france reopened its borders with non-european union countries. on 3 july 2020, philippe resigned as prime minister and was replaced by jean castex. castex had previously been appointed coordinator of the phasing out of the lockdown (confinement) implemented in france. on 10 july 2020, the state of health emergency in france came to an end, essentially ending the lockdown. however, there were still restrictions on social distancing. on 15 july 2020, olivier véran announced that from 24 july 2020, face coverings would be compulsory in all public indoor spaces and some outdoor public areas such as the eiffel tower. august–october 2020 during august 2020, cases began to rise again. in the week ending 16 august 2020, more than 10,000 cases were reported during that week. on 28 august 2020, france set a new record for the number of new cases in a single 24-hour period with 7,379 new cases reported. with this in mind, paris made it compulsory to wear face coverings in most public spaces. on 12 september 2020, france recorded more than 10,000 new cases in a single 24-hour period for the first time. deaths had also begun to rise again, with 154 recorded on 18 september 2020, the highest since 17 may 2020 and the first time daily deaths increased by more than 100 since 16 june 2020. on 5 october 2020, paris once again shut