The second nationwide lockdown in France, introduced on October 30 to curb the second coronavirus wave, was replaced with the night curfew starting Tuesday.

However, certain health measures, including mandatory closures of certain public facilities and firms, remain in effect since the fall.

"Many employees who work remotely 5 days out of 5 suffer from isolation. To remedy this, we will allow the return to the workplace 1 day a week from January 7, if the sanitary situation does not worsen," Borne tweeted.

In the meantime, the authorities have increased the monitoring of health instructions by the population on the eve of holidays, fearing that mass celebrations would lead to the third coronavirus outbreak.

To date, France has confirmed 2,446,406 COVID-19 infections and 59,182 related fatalities.