The number of people who have died from coronavirus infections in France rose by 70 to 26,380 on Sunday, the health ministry said, a smaller increase than the previous day as France prepared to emerge from lockdown on Monday.

The ministry said the number of people in intensive care units - a key measure of a health system's ability to deal with the epidemic - fell by 36 to 2,776, down from a peak of 7,148 seen on April 8.