Many European countries are starting to lift lockdown restrictions or change the way that their lockdown measures work in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19
Austria will become the first European country to set out a detailed set of plans for ending their current lockdown precautions, with small shops beginning to re-open on the 14th of April, with larger shops and supermarkets to do the same on the 1st of May.
Denmark is also planning to start lifting their own lockdown measures following Easter. The Danish government has said that it wants people to ‘work in a more staggered way’ to avoid people crowding into public transport.
Germany is removing some retrictions on schools, and is willing to re-open them regionally at first and will also allow a limited number of people to dine in restaurants if the infection rate stays sufficiently low.
Following Italy’s infection rate dropping to the lowest figure since the 17th of March after strict and long social distancing measures in the country.
On Monday, 636 COVID-19 deaths were recorded, bringing the total number of fatalities to 16,523. However, new cases increased by 3,599 to 132,547, the lowest daily rise since March 17th.
Italy has been under lockdown longer than any other European country, and officials in the country are now talking about ‘phase two’ of their measures, where society learns to ‘live with the virus’ with more freedoms, by wearing masks in public and carrying out more tests.
Spanish Prime Minister, Pedro Sanchez, has said that some economic restrictions sue to the current lockdown measures, could be lifted after Easter. Spain is currently the country with the second most deaths due to the virus after Italy.
This news comes as Spain had recently recorded four consecutive days where their daily death rate has fallen.
In the UK, the foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has said that it is too early to consider a strategy for exiting the coronavirus lockdown.
Raab has said that the current measures were “beginning to work” ,but said that shifting the nation’s focus could mean:
“we won’t get through the peak as fast as we need to”
He added Boris Johnson remained in charge of the government from hospital, where the PM spent the night receiving treatment for coronavirus symptoms.
The number of virus hospital deaths in the UK now stands at 5,375.
The Department of Health and Social Care has so far reported 51,608 total confirmed cases of the cornavirus in the UK.
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