"jean-castex"

The health situation in our country is improving faster than we expected, Castex told a press conference after a cabinet meeting.

"The situation is far from being back to normal. The level of contamination remains high and has tended to increase since mid-December," Xinhua news agency quoted Castex as saying at a press conference on Thursday.

A wave of jihadist attacks on French soil, often by so-called "lone wolf" assailants, has killed more than 250 people since 2015.