A big day. I’m going to go and buy some bread. I have my form printed. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Emmanuel Macron says that “too many people” are not taking the lockdown seriously enough and Interior Minister Christophe Castaner rather colourfully criticises people “who think they are modern heroes by breaking the rules when they are really imbeciles”.

Since several local authorities have felt it necessary to close the beaches, it looks as if they may have a point.

A medical state of emergency has passed in the Senate and it looks as if the lockdown is going to be long.

One of the top health bosses, Geneviève Chêne, says that it will almost certainly be necessary to extend it. Two to four weeks are necessary just to see of the situation is getting better, she says, adding that, if China’s example is anything to go by, the curve of infections will not start descending before the middle or end of May.

While the government is scolding the people, three doctors have filed a case against former health minister Agnès Buzyn and Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

The doctors point out that Buzyn recently told Le Monde that she had warned the government how serious the virus was in January and said that the local council elections should be postponed. That didn’t stop her quitting her post to head the Macron party’s list for the Paris city council after a solo sex tape of the previous mayoral candidate was posted online.

The shortage of FFP2 face masks reflects poorly on everyone who has been in power over the last decade. In 2005, after the avian flu outbreak, the then government (under president Jacques Chirac) decided to build up stocks in case of a future emergency. But in 2010 Nicolas Sarkozy’s government scrapped the orders, saying plenty were available in pharmacies.

Not enough for an emergency, however, and they’re all gone now. The authorities are assuring us that they are not necessary if you are not ill or a medical professional, but that doesn’t seem to be the opinion of officials in countries were there are enough face masks. Ministers have even suggested that people who aren’t ill take them to the pharmacies for use by medical professionals. Of course, nobody knows for sure that they are not ill because the symptoms may not have appeared yet.

Meanwile, 25 million masks are being distributed to some of those the government says need them and emergency production has been launched. They used to be imported from Wuhan.

Do you want to know how Mum is? She’s coughing less today, which leads me to believe that it is aggravated by pollution or pollen – a lot better than the virus. But she said she was getting out of breath, another recurring problem. Still no fever.

I still have to remind her continuously to cough into her elbow, or as near as she can get to it. I explained everything yesterday but it doesn’t stick.