Rome (AFP)

Reopening of the Colosseum in Rome, the shops of the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul or the Camden market in London: a scent of standardization was floating on Europe on Monday, but the WHO warned that the coronavirus remained a "killer virus" and did not lose its virulence after the polemical remarks of a famous Italian doctor.

If the usual health precautions and the strict restrictions imposed on travel have prevented the influx of large crowds, high tourist places have started to welcome the public on the Old Continent while Latin America is still struggling with a rampant epidemic .

"We take advantage of the absence of foreign tourists to come for a walk," rejoices Pierluigi, a Roman who came to visit the Colosseum for the first time with his wife.

The most visited tourist site on the peninsula, where the Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome, Pompeii or the Tower of Pisa have already been reopened, the imposing amphitheater of ancient Rome welcomed nearly 300 people who had made a reservation in line, far from the usual 20,000 daily tourists.

"Life goes on and customers are awaited," said Yasar Sabuncu, one of the 30,000 or so traders in the vast covered market, after having reopened his shop on the shelves stocked with souvenirs and leather goods.

- "The market is waking up" -

Despite a recent rebound in the number of new daily cases, Moscow has authorized its non-food businesses to reopen and its residents to go out shopping, wearing masks and gloves, and to walk up to three times a week under a system of slots.

In the United Kingdom, the most bereaved country in Europe but where the number of deaths in 24 hours was the lowest Monday since the beginning of the confinement on March 23, it was the turn of the very touristy Camden market in London of carefully reopen its doors.

Signs of this sudden stop, dozens of outdoor heaters, incongruous with this heat, still populate its alleys, now joined by distributors of hydroalcoholic gel. "It looks like the market is waking up," said John Jellesmark, a local resident.

Some schools closed since mid-March have also reopened.

Despite fears of a second wave, many other European countries have eased health restrictions.

The teams involved in the Spanish Football Championship have resumed collective training, the last stage before the La Liga resumption scheduled for June 11, while Finland has reopened its restaurants and cafes, and Norway all its bars.

In the Netherlands, it was notably the turn of the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. On the other hand, the "coffee shops" can only serve cannabis "to take away" to amateurs.

The French are impatiently awaiting the reopening of cafes and restaurants on Tuesday, as well as the lifting of the ban on traveling more than 100 km from their home.

As for Czechs, they will be able to travel to most European countries without being subjected to a Covid-19 test upon return from June 15.

- Controversy in Italy-

In Italy, which experienced the smallest daily increase in new cases on Monday since February 26, a famous doctor and emergency doctor assured him that the coronavirus had disappeared from the country and that it was time to stop unnecessarily "terrorizing" the Italians.

"The samples taken during the last ten days have shown an absolutely infinitesimal viral load in quantitative terms compared to those taken a month or two months ago," assured Dr Alberto Zangrillo, director of San Raffaele hospital on Sunday. from Milan (North).

These remarks provoked an outcry from the authorities and other specialists. The World Health Organization (WHO) has assured that there is nothing to confirm that the new coronavirus has become less pathogenic.

The new coronavirus "remains a killer virus" and "thousands of people continue to die every day," said Michael Ryan, head of the WHO emergency response program.

Worldwide, the pandemic has claimed more than 373,000 lives in more than 6.2 million cases, according to a count made Monday at 7:00 p.m. GMT by AFP from official sources. A balance sheet no doubt largely undervalued.

- Prime Minister infected -

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pachinian announced that he and his family have been infected with the new coronavirus as the epidemic worsens in this small Caucasian country with overcrowded hospitals.

Iran has also reported an unprecedented peak for two months, with nearly 3,000 new infections in 24 hours.

"People seem to think that the coronavirus is finished" but it is "far from being finished," warned the Minister of Health, Saïd Namaki. "We implored people not to organize weddings or funerals but they did not listen."

The number of poor families in the West Bank could double this year due to the pandemic, according to a World Bank study.

On the African continent, schools and / or universities have reopened in Cameroon and Tanzania although the epidemic is still progressing there. In Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan announced Monday the complete lifting of the containment started in late March, while a public study shows that the number of patients with the new coronavirus could be incommensurate with official figures.

The picture also remains grim in Latin America, which has become the epicenter of the pandemic which has officially infected more than a million people there. In Chile, new records were reached, with a total of more than 100,000 cases.

In Brazil, by far the most affected country in the region with more than 500,000 cases and nearly 30,000 deaths, the epidemic is accompanied by a rise in political tensions over how to deal with it.

Clashes erupted Sunday evening in Sao Paulo between supporters and opponents of President Jair Bolsonaro who downplayed the severity of the epidemic.

In the United States, where the epidemic's balance sheet is the highest in the world (104,658 deaths recorded), the health crisis is aggravated by deep political divisions and, for a week, by a surge of anger after the death of a black man during his arrest by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

burx-phy / lb / cls / fjb

© 2020 AFP