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

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 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.

Reuters