French cafes, restaurants, cinemas and other cultural venues and businesses that have been closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic will reopen in several stages from May 19, President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday, reports FRANCE 24.
Museums, theatres, cinemas and concert halls will reopen on May 19, along with non-essential shops and outdoor seating at cafes and restaurants, Macron told regional French newspapers in a highly-anticipated announcement.
Cafes and restaurants will have to wait until June 9, however, to be allowed to serve clients indoors, he added.
Macron also gave a timetable for lifting an unpopular night-time curfew which has turned French cities into ghost towns after 7:00 pm.
He said that the curfew would be progressively eased -- to 9:00 pm on May 19 and 11:00 pm on June 9 -- before being fully lifted on June 30.
France is nearing the end of a third national lockdown imposed to try and tame a severe third wave of infections.
A further 324 deaths were reported in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number killed by the pandemic to 103,947.
The number of new cases reported daily has fallen in the past month, from around 40,000 to 27,000 on average over the past week.