France plans to gradually lift its second COVID-19 lockdown as domestic economic activity has stalled.
Economic activity in France during the second lockdown fell by about 10 percent, compared to 30 percent during the country’s first lockdown, according to the French finance minister Bruno Le Maire.
French authorities planned to gradually stop the current nationwide confinement, considering a three-stage process to return to normalcy and to avoid a virus resurgence.
French people will be able to enjoy up to three hours a day of outdoor exercise and travel up to 20 kilometers from their homes starting on Saturday, President Emmanuel Macron announced Tuesday in a TV address, adding that non-essential shops will also be allowed to reopen until 21:00 under strict health conditions.
Currently, people can only go out to exercise for one hour limited to a radius of one kilometer.
President Macron stated that the nationwide coronavirus lockdown could be fully lifted with cinemas, theaters and museums allowed to reopen under strict health protocols on Dec 15 if health conditions are met.
Since September, coronavirus infections in France had spiraled to levels much higher than previously in the first wave of the pandemic, dragging the country into its second nationwide lockdown on Oct 30.
France reported 16,282 new infections in a 24-hour span on Wednesday, taking the total number of cases to 2,170,097. With 381 new deaths, the accumulative fatalities reached 50,618 since the start of the pandemic.
