Virus again slashes French Open crowd size to 1000

Already repeatedly trimmed, crowd sizes for the French Open have been reduced again ahead of play starting this weekend - to only 1,000 spectators per day - because of the worsening coronavirus epidemic in Paris.

The new limit, reduced from 5,000 per day, was first announced by Prime Minster Jean Castex on Thursday.

His office confirmed Friday that the reduction relates only to spectators, not to players, coaches, organizers and others working at Roland Garros, as Castex first said, causing initial confusion.

As virus cases have climbed, organizers have repeatedly had to scale back their ambitions.

They had been planning, just three weeks ago, to have 11,500 spectators per day, split between three show courts at the Roland Garros site that has been revamped with a new all-weather movable roof for the central Philippe Chatrier arena.

That was then scaled back to 5,000 per day in all and, now, to only 1,000, as Paris and its immediate suburbs this week joined a growing list of French cities with tightened restrictions on crowds and other activities.

France reported more than 16,000 new cases on Thursday alone, a new daily high, and new influxes of sick patients are putting mounting pressure on hospital ICU units