Paris (AFP)

Part of Europe, including France, will find its stores this weekend, reassured by the ebb of the coronavirus, but in the United States where the epidemic is not weakening, the authorities in Los Angeles have banned most of the private or public gatherings.

"All public and private gatherings of individuals not belonging to the same household are prohibited, with the exception of religious services and demonstrations", for a period of three weeks from Monday, November 30, the authorities announced on Friday. from the largest city in California.

On the other side of the Atlantic, the situation seems, on the other hand, to be improving to the point of encouraging the authorities to relax the pressure.

All stores will reopen in France on Saturday, a relief for thousands of traders as Christmas approaches.

“We are very, very happy”, rejoiced on Wednesday Sophie Patteuw, director of a toy store in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, in the North, ready to reopen its doors after “a big tidying up”.

Shops will be able to reopen until 9:00 p.m. (8:00 p.m. GMT), curfew requires, and must respect a strict health protocol.

In Poland, shopping centers reopen on Saturday.

Irish and Belgians will have to wait until Tuesday to find their traders, but in these two countries the ebb of the epidemic is confirmed.

"The efforts and sacrifices of all of us have worked. Lives have been saved," Prime Minister Micheal Martin said on Irish public broadcaster RTE.

And, as of Sunday, three new regions in Italy will lift their restrictions, allowing non-essential businesses to reopen.

But in these regions, Lombardy (north), Piedmont (north-west) and Calabria (south), bars and restaurants will remain closed, just like in France or Belgium.

- "Magna Carta" -

The European continent as a whole, however, is still far from getting rid of the coronavirus.

In Germany, yet considered a good student in the fight against Covid-19, the restrictions remain in force until early January.

In Cyprus, the authorities decided to impose a curfew on Monday.

And in Turkey, an age-based curfew will be imposed from Saturday.

In Britain, Wales will tighten restrictions on pubs and restaurants to limit the spread of the virus before Christmas.

This comes after a new containment decided by Northern Ireland and the return in England to a three-level alert system.

Which is not to the taste of all British people.

Citing nothing less than the Magna Carta, the founding text of modern democracy, a hairdresser near Bradford, in the north of England, has become a heroine among opponents of confinement on social networks.

She has accumulated 17,000 pounds (about 19,000 euros) in fines for keeping her salon open, despite the four-week confinement that began in early November in England.

Almost 61 million cases of Covid-19 have been officially counted worldwide since the start of the pandemic, and more than 1.4 million people have died from it.

Mexico experienced a record of contaminations in 24 hours on Friday, for the first time exceeding the threshold of 12,000 cases in a single day.

- "Cyber ​​Monday" -

The United States remains the most bereaved country in the world with 264,823 dead.

Uncertainty about Covid-19 reduced the usual crowd scenes on Friday, waiting for the opening of stores in the early morning to rush for the "Black Friday" bargains.

This year, the rush was online.

Result, This "Black Friday" and the "Cyber ​​Monday" which will follow, Monday, could "become the two days of online sales the most important in history", noted Friday the specialized site Adobe in a press release.

The United States is not the only country to continue to bear the brunt of the second wave.

In Tokyo, authorities have asked establishments serving alcohol, including karaoke, to close their doors at 10 p.m. from Saturday, for a period of three weeks.

Japan had however been relatively spared so far by the Covid-19 pandemic - with a little more than 2,000 deaths and 135,400 infections, according to official figures - and it did not impose the containment measures that we observe elsewhere.

But he now faces a record number of daily infections.

Elsewhere, the economic cost of the pandemic continues to be abysmal.

India announced on Friday a 7.5% decline in its gross domestic product from July to September, in the second quarter of its fiscal year, officially entering a technical recession for the first time since its independence in 1947.

The South Asian giant is, with nine million cases, the second most affected country in the world by the pandemic in terms of the number of people infected, after the United States.

© 2020 AFP