Rio de Janeiro on Friday started reopening its beaches for team sports, as well as its tourist attractions, even though Brazil has recorded more than 2 million cases of the novel coronavirus.
However, the city is maintaining its ban on sports at weekends, when larger crowds used to gather to play volleyball on the beaches of Copacabana or Ipanema, local media reported.
Swimming and sunbathing will not be allowed until a vaccine becomes available for Covid-19, Mayor Marcelo Crivella said earlier.
Tourist attractions were allowed to reopen with limited capacity and social distancing. The Sugarloaf Mountain and the Corcovado Mountain, home to the iconic Christ statue, will welcome visitors in the first half of August.
Brazil reported more than 2 million infections on Thursday, and confirmed 76,688 deaths.
Over 65,500 of the infections and 7,550 of the deaths were in Rio de Janeiro, and while the outbreak has recently eased in the city, experts have warned of a new wave.
After the United States, Brazil has the most Covid-19 infections and deaths worldwide.
But President Jair Bolsonaro, himself infected, has downplayed the severity of the pandemic and stressed the need to keep the economy open.
Rio residents still spend a lot of time outside, with bars and even beaches filling up despite the sunbathing ban.
