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Agence France-Presse

Parts of Europe will reopen stores on Saturday in time for the holiday season after progress in containing the coronavirus.
Most countries hope to ease their virus rules for Christmas and New Year, allowing families a respite before bracing for what the world hopes is one last wave of restrictions until a clutch of promising new vaccines kick in.
Stores will lift their shutters in France on Saturday, while Poland’s shopping centres will also reopen.

Belgium is to allow shops to reopen from December 1, but keep the current semi-lockdown in place possibly until mid-January.
The move mirrors similar easing in Germany, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.
The Italian government partially lifted restrictions in Lombardy and Piedmont in the north, and Calabria in the south from Sunday, changing their alert levels from red to orange.
And Ireland has also announced a staggered easing of restrictions to allow some businesses to reopen and for families to gather ahead of Christmas.

Speaking in a televised address, Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin said the upcoming festive period “cannot and will not be the kind of Christmas we are used to” but added the easing of restrictions would offer “some respite from the hardships of 2020 and in particular, the last six weeks”.
Germany, once a beacon of hope in Europe’s coronavirus nightmare, logged more than 1 million cases on Friday, while Russia asked India to help mass produce its controversial Sputnik vaccine.
Russia says Sputnik V coronavirus vaccine is 95 per cent effective
Although the virus spread is slowing thanks to weeks of tough restrictions, Europe remains at the heart of the pandemic, recording more cases than the United States in the past week.
Until recently, Germany’s relative success in containing the virus had offered some sense of hope, with authorities putting in place some precautions that still allowed life to carry on almost as normal.
However, its measured approach has failed during the second wave, endangering the health of Europe’s biggest economy and weighing on the mood as the northern hemisphere heads into the winter holidays.
Germany’s Robert Koch Institute recorded more than 22,000 new daily cases on Friday, pushing the overall total beyond the one-million mark.
More worryingly, the number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care has soared from around 360 in early October to more than 3,500 last week.


The United States surpassed 13 million total cases on Friday – the world’s highest – and officials were concerned whether gatherings on Thursday for the Thanksgiving holiday would further worsen the situation in the coming weeks.
The virus clouded the traditional “Black Friday” shopping day, but experts were expecting strong online sales.
Worry over the virus’s rapid spread led Los Angeles county to announce a temporary ban on gatherings of people from different households, with religious services and protests exempt.
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The order affecting the second-largest American city will take effect on Monday and last at least three weeks, until December 20, the county’s public health department said.
California last week imposed a nighttime curfew across much of the state.
Sports was also affected in the United States. The NFL postponed a pivotal match-up between the unbeaten Pittsburgh Steelers and the Baltimore Ravens to Tuesday because of a Covid-19 outbreak among Ravens players.
Further north in Canada, whose largest city Toronto is under lockdown, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced that a general who led Nato‘s mission in Iraq as well as Canadian troops in Afghanistan and Bosnia would spearhead a gigantic vaccination drive.
“This will be the biggest immunisation in the history of the country,” Trudeau said.


The pandemic is spreading fastest in Asia and Latin America, and is up by a worrying 113 per cent over the week in Mexico.
Globally, more than 1.4 million deaths and 61 million infections have been officially recorded, although the real numbers are unknown since testing and reporting methods vary greatly.
With the virus on the march and the roll-out of the first vaccines not expected until next month, much of the world faces a gloomy winter under more lockdowns, with an accompanying increase in economic anxiety and mental strain.
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Lockdown fatigue is spreading even as governments unfurl new measures to save health care systems from collapse.
One hairdresser in northern England has become a cause célèbre among social media libertarians after stacking up fines totalling £17,000 (US$23,000), invoking the Magna Carta of 1215.
Among others invoking Magna Carta to stay open have been a tattoo parlour in Bristol, western England, and a children’s soft-play centre in Liverpool, in the northwest.

Law enforcers have taken a dim view, meting out fines and reminding all businesses that legislation of this year, not 800 years ago, is relevant and binding.
Nations are now trying to gauge how people, exhausted by one of the most traumatic years in generations, can enjoy a small holiday break without making things worse.
Playing it safe, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has called for all EU resorts to be closed until January 10, making Switzerland – which is outside the bloc and is staying open – the go-to destination for ski fans.


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Coronavirus pandemic

Parts of Europe to ease coronavirus rules to allow Christmas shopping, gathering

A worker places a model of a Christmas Nutcracker outside the entrance of the hotel in Glasgow. Photo: PA Wire/dpa

(201120) -- BEIJING, Nov. 20, 2020 (Xinhua) -- Workers install a Christmas tree at the Grand Place of Brussels, Belgium, Nov. 19, 2020. This year's Christmas tree is 18m high, and will be decorated in the theme of 'renewal'. (Xinhua/Zheng Huansong)

epa08846627 Staff prepare to reopen a store, in Cannes, France, 27 November 2020. French President Macron announced that all stores can reopen starting 28 November after several weeks of lockdown which were to combat a resurgence of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) outbreak. EPA-EFE/SEBASTIEN NOGIER

27 November 2020, Spain, Malaga: People walk through central Larios street as Christmas lights switched on in Malaga. Malaga will not celebrate its traditional sound and light show due to the Coronavirus restrictions. Photo: Álex Zea/EUROPA PRESS/dpa

A woman walks past Christmas wreaths displayed for sale in Denny, Scotland. Photo: PA Wire/dpa

Germany makes vaccination plans as coronavirus cases pass 1 million

German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Photo: AP

General view after the last flight took off from Berlin's Tegel airport, which closes permanently following the recent opening of the new Berlin-Brandenburg (BER) airport in Berlin, Germany, November 8, 2020. REUTERS/Annegret Hilse

Coronavirus: culled mink rise from graves in Denmark after botched mass burial

Mink look out from a pen on a farm near Naestved, Denmark on November 6. Photo: Ritzau Scanpix via AP

epa08843819 Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reacts after a visit to a empty Mink Farm near Kolding, Denmark, 26 November 2020. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen had tears in her eyes when she met the press after the visit. EPA-EFE/Mads Nissen / POOL DENMARK OUT

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Coronavirus


From Belgium to Poland, some stores will be allowed to reopen to give families a brief respite during the holiday season
Although the spread of Covid-19 is slowing thanks to weeks of tough restrictions, Europe remains at the heart of the pandemic



From Belgium to Poland, some stores will be allowed to reopen amid the coronavirus to give families a brief respite during the holiday season.
