Restaurants and other businesses reopen in Brazil

Restaurants, bars and beauty salons reopened on Monday in São Paulo, Brazil largest city, after 104 days of closure due to the pandemic.

São Paulo's Mayor Bruno Covas approved the rules for the reopening as part of the plan to ease restrictions and restart the economy on Saturday.

Bars and restaurants must have only 40% occupancy, keep a minimum distance of 2 meters between tables and alcohol gel needs to be available to all clients.

They are allowed to work only 6 hours per day and need to be closed by 5 PM.

This measure is not the best prospect for restaurant and bar manager Humberto Salles, once the majority of his clients used to come at night after work, but he says he understands the situation, and they will have to adapt.

''There is a light, but we can't see when this (back to normal) is going to happen. Bars have reopened in Rio de Janeiro, but there have been already crowds as we saw, so we figured that might happen here (in case of bars are allowed to reopen at night)'', says Salles.

After three months without having his haircut, João Egídio is very happy to be able to see his barber again.

"Now, it is good. It gives a more pleasant disposition.", add Egidio with a smile on his face.

The state government determined that the use of a mask is mandatory in all public spaces.

Individuals and commercial establishments that do not enforce the rule will be fined with 500 reais (92 US dollars) for individuals and 5,000 reais (920 dollars) for the commercial establishment.

Brazil registered more than 65,000 fatalities, with over 16,000 in São Paulo state, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.