The announcement came as Paris and Marseille last week widened the areas where face coverings are required to all farmers' markets and more French neighborhoods.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal announced on Monday that an extra 130 police officers will be sent to the Marseille region, a coastal city in south-eastern France.
"We need a culture of masks, a culture of protective measures. We failed to deliver this clear message in the first wave," Dr. Giles Pialoux, the head of infectious diseases at Tenon Hospital in Paris, told France Inter radio on Monday. "We need strong and coherent messages. I think the strategy of fear does not work."
The French government made face masks mandatory in all enclosed public spaces and shops on July 22. The rules in Paris were expanded further on Aug. 15, among some other towns around France that are starting to require the wearing of masks in outdoor spaces as well.
Last Sunday, 3,015 more cases were added to the list in one of the highest daily spikes since the country lifted a strict two-month lockdown in May.
In several major European cities, including Berlin, Brussels, and Madrid, relatively large "anti-mask protests" were organized with some participants saying officials are violating people’s rights and freedoms with their regulations.
"Our demand is to return to democracy," one Berlin protester, who declined to give his name said. "The mask that enslaves us must go."
"The purpose of masks is to keep respiratory droplets from reaching others to aid with source control. Masks with one-way valves or vents allow exhaled air to be expelled out through holes in the material. This can allow exhaled respiratory droplets to reach others and potentially spread the COVID-19 virus," the guide reads.
"Therefore, CDC does not recommend using masks if they have an exhalation valve or vent," it continued.