PARIS — France is urging people to use the option of working from home.

Labor Minister Elisabeth Borne told Bleu radio on Friday as many as 2.5 million workers who could “easily work from home” are going to the office instead. “If your job can be done remotely, you should be working remotely five days a week.”

The government has been urging work from home for those professions that allow it since the coronavirus resurged in October. But unlike during France’s first lockdown last spring, many offices have stayed open.

The government plans to step up inspections of companies to ensure that anyone able to work from home is doing so.

France has imposed 12-hour-a-day nationwide curfew but has stopped short of imposing a third lockdown because current virus infections have stabilized, although cases remain high.

France has registered 3.3 million cases and 78,000 confirmed deaths, the third highest in Europe and seventh globally.