PARIS (REUTERS, AFP) - Paris is to be placed on maximum Covid-19 alert, meaning bars will be forced to close for two weeks from Tuesday (Oct 6) and restaurants will have to put in place new sanitary protocols to stay open, the prime minister's office said.

Prime Minister Jean Castex's office said there had been no improvement in the Paris region since the capital passed all three of the government's criteria for being put on the highest level of alert mid last week.

Working from home should be prioritised "now more than ever" in the Paris area and university lecture halls should be no more than half full, Castex's office said in a statement.

The reinforced restrictions will take effect from Tuesday.

"These measures, indispensable in the fight to curb the virus' spread, will apply to Paris and the three departments immediately surrounding it, for a duration of two weeks," it said.

For a city to be placed on maximum alert, the incidence rate must exceed 100 infections per 100,000 among elderly inhabitants and 250 per 100,000 among the general public, while at least 30 per cent of intensive care beds are reserved for coronavirus patients.

A week ago, restaurants and bars were shut down for a fortnight in Marseille, the southern city at the epicentre of the second wave, prompting protests and an unsuccessful legal challenge.

Restaurants in Marseille will be allowed to reopen early under the same new protocols. France on Sunday reported 12,565 new cases of coronavirus, while 893 Covid-19 patients had been admitted into intensive care over the past week.

Interior minister Gerald Darmanin acknowledged that the looming closure of bars and cafes would be "tough" for everyone concerned.

"We are French, we love to drink, to eat, to live, to smile and to kiss each other," he told broadcasters LCI and Europe 1 on Sunday.

"But we're also doing this because the people want us to," he added.

BFM television on Sunday published a poll saying that 61 percent of people living in Paris and its suburbs were in favour of a complete closure of bars, which are currently authorised to remain open until 10 pm.

Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo told reporters on Sunday that "it's not a done deal, there is still work being done, we're still talking". But she also conceded that the health situation was "very serious".

The government has said it will target primarily establishments that "serve alcoholic drinks without food".

Restaurant owners are still hoping that they can dodge a similar fate, at least for now.

The health authorities are evaluating a proposal submitted by restaurants for voluntary restrictions - including registering the home addresses of their clients and limiting the number of people at each table - before submitting their recommendations to the government.

Other large French cities including Lille, Lyon, Grenoble and Toulouse are also hovering near the maximum alert threshold and similar measures as in the capital could be in store for them, too.

Employer organisation UMIH, which represents cafes, bars, hotels, restaurants, brasseries and discos, has warned that 15 percent of France's 220,000 establishments in the sector are threatened with bankruptcy because of virus restrictions, with up to 250,000 staff facing unemployment.

The government has said it will take every precaution necessary to avoid a new state of emergency that would require a generalised lockdown like the one imposed at the height of the outbreak, from mid-March to mid-May.

The country's total death toll from Covid-19 is 32,198 after recording 49 more fatalities on Saturday.