France reopens economy to quicken virus recovery

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron announced that France is fully reopening its economy, including all restaurants, to accelerate the country's recovery after virus crisis.

Macron said restaurants in the Paris region will be allowed to open indoor seating starting on Monday. Until then, only outdoor seating was permitted.

Restaurants in other French regions have already reopened. From June 22, all nursery schools, primary schools and junior high schools will be open and mandatory for all students - instead of classes capped to small groups and many children staying at home.

Macron also confirmed that the second round of local elections that have been interrupted by the virus lockdown will take place on June 28 and will start allowing visitors from other continents on July 1st.

The country, which has reported at least 29,398 deaths from the virus in hospitals and nursing homes, has been under strict lockdown from March 17 to May 11, before gradually easing restrictions.

It's among several European countries opening borders first thing Monday - though it's not clear how many Europeans are ready to travel again.

The French government has urged fellow EU members to coordinate their border rules, and is sticking to calendar recommendations from the European Commission last week.

"Given the favorable evolution of the health situation in France and in Europe," the French government said in a statement it's opening its borders to all arrivals from the EU and countries in the border-free Schengen zone Monday.

People arriving from inside Europe won't need to undergo quarantine. But France will apply different rules to visitors from Spain and Britain because those countries established different reopening schedules.

The French government promised to ease entry for foreign students in particular ahead of the new academic year.