The US government has denied reports that its representatives bought millions of face masks as they were about to be flown to France, paying cash on the airport runway.

The presidents of three French regional councils, including Valérie Pécresse who heads Ile de France, say that Americans bought consignments of masks at Chinese airports for up to four times as much just as the planes were about to be loaded.

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has said he is “very worried” by a report that a cargo destined for Quebec arrived substantially lighter than expected allegedly after the same trick was pulled off.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe denied the government has mishandled the supply of masks in a television address last night.

The evidence – a major shortage in hospitals, never mind for the rest of us – seems to contradict him.

Production was stepped up in January, he claimed, but the explosion of the epidemic in Alsace took the government by surprise.

At least there are four mask manufacturers in France, Philippe pointed out, while some countries don’t have any. And, of course, others are being imported, if the Americans don’t outbid us.

All of which, ignores the government’s misleading declarations on the value of masks – claims that they were pointless for the general public, which, it is now clear, were an attempt to make up for the shortage for frontline workers.

The Mediapart website has published a long and damning article on failures to follow up leads from concerned citizens, attempts to cover up shortages, preferential treatment for Airbus and “lies”.

Lockdown will almost certainly be extended beyond the current 15 April deadline, Philippe said.

The prime minister found it necessary to appeal to the French not to go away on seasonal holidays. “OK, it’s spring … but the virus doesn’t take a holiday.”

And there will have to be a rethink on how to organize and mark the all-important baccalauréat, the final school exam.

Very French problems.

An “ultra-modern” site is to be opened at a hospital in Créteil, not far from Champigny, by mid-April. It will be able to handle an extra 86 patients, which doesn’t seem a lot given the scale of the epidemic. Presumably they will be the most urgent ones.

In the topsy-turvy Coronavirus world, the Medef bosses’ union has called for companies in difficulty to be nationalised and the free-market-fanatical government has agreed.

But, but the ideological aberration will only be temporary. Those too-big-to-fail French companies will be handed back to their owners when the crisis is over, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has reassured them.

“It’s just a question of the state protecting companies, for a limited time, by taking a stake or possibly enacting a temporary nationalisation,” he told France24 and RFI.

I yearn to go for a walk in the woods in the spring sunshine.

I had to make do with a walk to the bakery, which takes me over the Marne, where chestnuts are beginning to regain their leaves, bushes are blossoming and birds are singing.

A Canada goose and a duck rushed to the bank when they saw me. They must wonder what’s happened to the humans who often feed them. Still, apparently it’s not a good diet for them, so they can thank the virus for a slimming course.

The death toll from Covid-19 in France’s hospitals now stands at 4,503, up 471 in 24 hours. Figures have now been announced for old people’s homes – at least 884, although officials say this is almost certainly an underestimate. There are more than 26,000 people in hospital with the virus, 6,399 in intensive care, a rise of 382 in 24 hours. More than 12,000 people have been discharged from hospital, apparently recovered.