PPARIS: The COVID-19 pandemic is now “under control” in France, the head of the government’s scientific advisory council said Friday, as the country cautiously lifts the lockdown imposed in March to contain the outbreak. “The virus is still circulating, in certain regions in particular... but it is circulating slowly,” Jean-Francois Delfraissy told France Inter radio. “Where we had tens of thousands of cases a day, around 80,000 new cases per day in early March, before the lockdown, we estimate we now have around 1,000 cases,” he said.