Paris

French President Emmanuel Macron, who has tested positive for the coronavirus, is in stable condition, and examinations had given reassuring results, a statement from his office said Saturday.

Macron, who is working in self-isolation from an official residence outside Paris, "is still presenting the same symptoms of the Covid-19 illness (fatigue, coughing and stiffness)", said the brief statement, signed by his doctor.

But they were not preventing him from carrying out his duties.

On Friday, Macron had promised to provide a daily update and, for the time, posted on social media a short video message filmed on his own phone.

Speaking of the general situation in France, where the number of deaths passed 60,000 on Friday, he warned: "We have to be vigilant as the virus is gaining in strength again."

The French authorities are concerned that the holiday period could see a new spike in infections.

On Friday, a total 15,674 new cases were reported in the past 24 hours in France, down from 18,254 the previous day.

And the so-called positivity rate — which measures the number of confirmed contaminations as a proportion of the number of tests carried out — slipped slightly to 5.9 per cent from 6.1 per cent on Thursday.