A French health official says warnings to stay home in the coronavirus pandemic are in some cases falling on deaf ears while noting that the virus hasn't just been posing a risk to seniors.

French health ministry official Jérôme Salomon said Monday that the situation is "deteriorating very quickly" while providing this statistic: of the between 300 and 400 coronavirus patients in intensive care in France, about half of them are younger than 65, The New York Times reports.

Salomon is looking to "dispel the notion that the virus seriously threatens only the elderly," the Times reports, and Mother Jones observes that even though the novel coronavirus is "understood to be particularly lethal among the elderly," these numbers "underscore the reality that younger generations can still face serious consequences."

Salomon also said Monday that in France, "a lot of people have not understood that they need to stay at home," and as a result, "we are not succeeding in curbing the outbreak of the epidemic," per Reuters. Most nonessential businesses in France were ordered to be closed over the weekend.

France has confirmed more than 5,400 cases of the novel coronavirus, and by Sunday, the number of deaths had risen to 127. Salomon said Monday the number of cases has been doubling "every three days." Brendan Morrow