Work at the Paris site has been suspended since March 16, when France introduced widespread measures to help control the spread of Covid-19. And despite the months of recovery work already undertaken, there is ongoing uncertainty about the full extent of the damage.
Army general Jean-Louis Georgelin, President Emmanuel Macron's special representative for the reconstruction, told the French Senate in late January that it was too early to tell whether the cathedral could be saved. He reported that a number of delicate tasks still needed to be completed in order to fully ascertain the structure's condition, including accessing ceiling vaults for inspection and removing the scaffolding that had been erected before the blaze and had partially melted. Georgelin also said that large amounts of lead dust at the site posed a contamination risk that he was taking "very seriously."
