French President: response to COVID-19 resurgence must be proportionate

France's response to a resurgence in the COVID-19 virus in the country needs to be proportionate, President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday, as the country battles to contain the virus while ensuring that economic and social activities can continue.

"So we need to be lucid, very transparent, demanding but at the same time proportionate," Macron told reporters on the sidelines of a briefing on plans to help French heritage sites.

France has the seventh-highest COVID-19 death toll in the world, with more than 31,000 dead.