To avoid economic collapse, Spain, Italy, France will begin to loosen their strict lockdown measures, despite the fact that these are amongst Europe’s worst affected countries over the Corona Virus. Germany, Portugal & Greece have also started a gradual easing of lockdown rules. Juthy Saha reports.
From Monday, people in Italy will be able to travel within regions to visit relatives by wearing masks but schools, hairdressers, gyms and many other commercial activities will stay closed, Italian authority announced.
Italy’s special commissioner for the virus emergency, Domenico Arcuri has said: “We must maintain social distancing, maximum hygiene levels, and masks,”
“We’ve done our bit to the best of our ability. From Monday, it’s up to you.”
In Spain, adults were allowed back on to the street to exercise on Saturday after Seven weeks in lockdown.
Spanish Prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said: “The virus isn’t going anywhere. It’s still there, lying in wait, and so we have to be prepared to react and, logically, to be able to manage this transition towards a new normality.”
Reports say, in Italy, 210,717 people have been infected and died nearly 29,000. In Spain, 217,466 cases of Covid-19 and 25,264 deaths have been confirmed. So till now, precautions are a must.
The French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, said, the ending of the lockdown would vary from place to place. He told departments would be labelled “red” or “green” on May 7, but will depend on the capacity for testing and receiving patients in hospitals.
In Germany, meanwhile, where smaller shops, car, and bike dealers and bookstores
reopened last week and some pupils return to school on Monday, the first signs
appeared that transmission of the virus had picked up again.
The Greek prime minister, Kyriakos Mitsotakis, also announced a gradual easing
of lockdown rules from 4 May.
Portugal president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa announced the country’s state of
emergency would end on May 3. But he warned that the “end of the state of
emergency does not mean the virus has stopped spreading, or that we no longer
need confinement measures”.
