France's Macron expected to announce easing of COVID rules in coming days - minister

Macron has said that while the open-air bar and restaurant terraces may reopen in mid-May, indoor venues will not re-open before June, and only in regions where the COVID-19 figures have dropped sufficiently to allow this.

French President Emmanuel Macron will probably make an announcement on plans to relax COVID-19 restrictions in the next few days, employment minister Elisabeth Borne told BFM TV on Tuesday. France, the euro zone's second-biggest economy, started its third national lockdown at the end of March after suffering a spike in COVID-19 deaths and case numbers.

Macron is hoping the effects of that lockdown, along with an accelerated vaccination campaign, will improve France's COVID-19 figures, which would then allow certain businesses and leisure activities - such as outdoors dining - to reopen in mid-May. French schools reopened on Monday after a three-week closure. Macron has said that while the open-air bar and restaurant terraces may reopen in mid-May, indoor venues will not re-open before June, and only in regions where the COVID-19 figures have dropped sufficiently to allow this.