Coronavirus Spread Largely Among Under 40-Year-Olds in France, Minister Says

French Health Minister Olivier Veran attends the closing session of the "Segur de la Sante" general meeting on country's health system, at the French Health Ministry in Paris on July 21, 2020. Bertrand Guay/Reuters

PARIS—The new coronavirus is circulating four times more among people under 40 in France than among over 65-year-olds, France’s health minister said, though he warned that contamination was on the rise among the elderly and more vulnerable too.

“We’re in a risky situation,” Olivier Veran said in an interview with France’s Journal Du Dimanche (JDD) published on Sunday, adding that the higher number of cases being detected was not solely down to more testing.