‘’Have you tasted this tea?’’ my elderly Mum asked when I took her breakfast.

We’re fussy about our tea in this house but lockdown has forced us to change from the loose-leaf Darjeeling from a shop in a neighbouring town to supermarket-bought English Breakfast teabags. What a comedown!

At least it proves she’s not lost her sense of taste.

Yesterday’s trip to the supermarket – via the bottle-bank to which I made a considerable contribution – was eerie.

The streets were weirdly silent and Champigny’s main square was empty apart from a well-spaced queue outside Monoprix.

Despite being a bit more expensive than its competitors, Monoprix is the town centre’s most popular supermarket, so I had already decided to go to another one nearby. No queueing outside here but more than its usually desultory number of customers moving around a more confined space, so it wasn’t that great an idea.

The queue to get into Monoprix had gone down when I came out. They seem to be being very strict, with the security guard – who is hyperactive at the calmest of time – letting a handful of people in at a time, so I suppose I should go and stand in line on my next big shop.

The Marseille doctor, Didier Rauoult, who claimed he was successfully using an anti-malarial drug to fight the virus has turned out to be a controversial figure.

Online detractors point out that the drug’s efficacy against Covid-19 had not been independently tested or recognized by the relevant authorities. They accuse him of being an energetic self-publicist, who denied there would be a serious epidemic in January.

It also apparently has dangerous side-effects, especially for the elderly who are most at risk from Covid-19.

Still, Trump was impressed by his declarations.

France’s lockdown has not been officially extended yet, although everybody expects it to be. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe announced a tightening of restrictions yesterday but they weren’t exactly draconian. You can still go out for some exercise but only once a day and not for more than an hour – how will the police know how long you’ve been out? – and you must do so alone. Open-air markets are to close, although there can be exceptions for villages where they are the only source of food.

While we’re on the subject of food, the government has called on citizens who are laid off from their jobs to go and help bring in the crops. Is this wise? It may keep us fed but won’t it spread the virus? Philippe also called on supermarkets to buy French produce. Will buy local be a big lesion of this crisis?

At least we’re not India. Have you seen the pictures of the response to Modi’s call to bang pots and pans in honour of health-workers. People packed together on balconies and in the street, a guarantee that there will be many more patients for those hard-pressed and not very numerous people to try to heal as the virus zips around the crowds.

And then there’s the cow-piss drinking, advocated by Hindutva fanatics and causing one participant to make a legal complaint against a member of the fascistic RSS after he fell ill.

Manu Dibango has died of the effects of Covid-19. He was 86. Although he was originally from Cameroon he had become Champigny’s most famous resident.

Five doctors have died in France, confirming the scandal of the shortage of masks and tests, whose production should have been stepped up in January and should be augmented now by the requisition of companies capable of producing them.

Twenty people died in an old people’s home in the Vosges, possibly due to the virus.

The number of new cases in France went down the day of the lockdown but has risen again since, although unevenly, reaching a high point of 3,176 yesterday.

The recorded death toll since the start of the epidemic is now 860, with 2,082 in intensive care. There are 19,856 recorded cases, 6,211 in Ile de France (Paris and the surrounding region) and 4,526 in the north-eastern region that covers Alsace, Champagne-Ardenne and Lorraine.