France eases COVID-19 curbs, including outdoor mask-wearing

PARIS — France began lifting coronavirus restrictions including mandatory outdoor mask-wearing Wednesday in a bid to ease citizens' daily lives, dividing opinion as the country only last month reported record COVID-19 infections.

Audience capacity limits for concert halls, sporting matches and other events were also removed, and although home working will no longer be mandated, it is still recommended.

The move begins a 2-part relaxation of curbs announced at the end of January -- despite the country hitting record levels of daily cases last month -- and comes as England and Denmark also eased their restrictions.

France "will be able to lift most of the restrictions taken to curb the epidemic in February" thanks to the new vaccination pass, which replaced the health pass, Prime Minister Jean Castex said in January.

Since last month proof of inoculation records have been required for the new passes -- needed to access everything from bars and restaurants to long-distance public transport.

Previously, the health pass could also be obtained with a recent negative COVID-19 test, a possibility the government ended in its bid to convince more people to get COVID jabs. 

The second stage of the curb-lifting will see nightclubs, shut since December, reopen on Feb. 16 and standing areas will again be allowed at concerts, sporting events and bars.

Eating and drinking will also be permitted in stadiums, cinemas and public transport from then.

Paris has not made the easing of restrictions conditional on the progress of the health situation.

Authorities view the threat of the Omicron variant as limited and less dangerous than previous strains of the virus, even though it is more contagious.

"We have seen a weak reversal of the trend over the past few days, with fewer cases declared each day than 7 days earlier," government spokesman Gabriel Attal told France Info radio Tuesday.

An average of 322,256 cases were recorded over the previous 7 days, according to latest figures, compared with 366,179 a week ago.

Attal called it a "very encouraging signal" but said officials "remain cautious" because of a "very contagious" sub-variant of Omicron that appears to have delayed the peak of infections in other countries.

Agence France-Presse

Protest against coronavirus restrictions turns violent in Brussels

BRUSSELS — Police fired teargas and used water cannons on Sunday to disperse protesters pelting officers with cobblestones and fireworks as a demonstration in Brussels over government-imposed COVID-19 restrictions turned violent.

A few thousand protesters marched peacefully through the center of the Belgian capital to the neighborhood which hosts the headquarters of European Union institutions, where the demonstration reached its endpoint.

In the EU quarter, a group of protesters wearing black hoods and chanting "liberte" (freedom) started to throw stones at the police, who reacted with teargas and water cannons, according to footage and reports from Reuters journalists present.

Demonstrators were protesting rules imposed in October that oblige people to show COVID-19 passes to access bars and restaurants.

"I can't bear discrimination in any form, and now there's the vaccine pass which is discriminatory, sanctions for (unvaccinated) carers which are discriminatory too, there's mandatory vaccination which is heading our way," one protestor, martial arts teacher Alain Sienaort, said.

"That's all discrimination, so we have to fight it. We don't want a dictatorship."

The protest followed new measures announced on Friday to curb one of Europe's highest infection rates, including mandatory mask wearing for most primary school children and a lengthening of the school holidays.

In late November, a much larger number of demonstrators clashed violently with the police in Brussels. That led to dozens of arrests, injuries among police officers, and widespread property damage. 

(Reporting by John Cotton, Sean Carter, and Francesco Guarascio; Editing by Jan Harvey)

-reuters-

5 cases of Omicron variant confirmed in New York state: governor

NEW YORK—The state of New York has confirmed 5 cases of the coronavirus Omicron variant, Governor Kathy Hochul said Thursday, bringing the total number of US detections of the new strain to 8.

"New York State has confirmed 5 cases of the Omicron variant," Hochul said in a Twitter post aimed at reassuring residents of the nation's fourth most populous state that the detections were not unexpected.

"Let me be clear: This is not cause for alarm. We knew this variant was coming and we have the tools to stop the spread," she said.

"Get your vaccine. Get your booster. Wear your mask."

It was not immediately clear whether the new cases were in or near New York City -- the country's most populous metropolitan area -- and whether they were detected in people who had recently returned from traveling outside the country.

Eight cases have so far been confirmed in the United States, with at least one, in Minnesota, involving a person with no recent international travel history, signaling the strain is already circulating inside the country.

Hochul's figures followed the announcement by President Joe Biden that he is bolstering his administration's campaign against COVID-19 as the winter takes hold.

The new measures include requiring all inbound international travelers be tested within 1 day of flying, and an extension of mask mandates on public transportation through mid-March.

Agence France-Presse