On March 1, a museum spokesman said the Louvre would temporarily close for a staff meeting on the Covid-19 acute respiratory infection instead of remaining open as planned. Visitors expressed disappointment at the news, after lining up in the rain outside the museum on Sunday morning.
It is not yet clear when the Louvre will reopen.
Tourists line up outside the Louvre on March 1
It is known that nearly three-quarters of the 9.6 million visitors to the Louvre in 2019 came from abroad and the world's most famous museum still welcomes tens of thousands of visitors every day.
The Louvre welcomes tens of thousands of visitors every day.
Louvre staff were also concerned that colleagues had recently returned from northern Italy to borrow works by Leonardo da Vinci for their own use.major exhibitionson the occasion of the 500th anniversary of the death of the genius artist.
Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper is on display at the Louvre Museum on February 21.
Earlier, on February 29, the French government issued decrees to cancel all large gatherings indoors or in places that can accommodate more than 5,000 people to curb the spread of the Covid-19 virus. According to one of these decrees, the annual Paris farm show and the marathon with more than 40,000 registrants scheduled for March 1 in Paris were canceled.
As of March 1, France had recorded 130 cases of Covid-19 infection, an increase of 30 cases compared to the previous day, with 12 people recovered and 2 deaths.
