PARIS, Jan 29 (Reuters) – Prime Minister Jean Castex said on Friday the coronavirus variants first detected in Britain and South Africa posed a dangerous risk to France but that a third nationwide lockdown could still be avoided.

Instead, Castex said France would further tighten COVID-19 controls at its borders, reduce the number of people allowed into shopping malls and increase police controls against people breaking a nightly curfew.

(Reporting by Geert de Clercq; Editing by Richard Lough)

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