Montreal (AFP)

Eight months after the restaurants were closed due to the pandemic, Quebeckers were able to enjoy the joy of being on the terrace on Friday with the lifting of many anti-Covid restrictions.

It is, however, a rather slow restart that the restaurants experienced since most of the terraces were empty in the morning due to the cold weather, noted AFP journalists in several neighborhoods of Montreal.

"The temperature did not help us, it was 6 (degrees, editor's note) this morning, so the terrace has not been too busy yet," Laurent Pellerin, waiter at Le Pontiac restaurant, told AFP.

However, a few rare people braved the cold to take a seat around a table.

"It's a good opportunity to come and encourage a local business," said Chloé El-Sayegh, 27, seated on a terrace, beer in hand.

# photo1

"The social side has been very difficult in the last year, so it's really fun to be able to find a certain semblance of normal life," said Béatrice Bernard-Poulin, 34 years old.

As for restaurateurs, David Zaltzman, co-owner of the Notre-Boeuf-de-Grâce restaurant in the Plateau district of Montreal, was delighted with the reopening of his establishment: "It's very exciting, we are outside, we can finally work. ".

For the moment, restaurant terraces are reopening at 50% of their capacity and on a limited basis since only tables of two people are accepted.

This Friday also marks the easing of other health measures in Quebec: the curfew introduced in January, unprecedented in Canada at the level of a province since the Spanish flu epidemic, has been lifted.

In addition, travel between regions within the province is once again authorized, and outdoor stadiums and large performance halls will be able to accommodate up to 2,500 people in several zones of 250 people.

These measures were announced thanks in particular to the success of the vaccination campaign: to date, more than 58% of the population has received a first dose of vaccine, according to data from the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec (INSPQ ).

Quebec, which has about 8 million inhabitants, recorded some 369,000 cases of coronavirus on Friday and 11,100 deaths.

© 2021 AFP