Behind masks, Europe is creeping back to life
MILLIONS of Italians were back in bars and restaurants yesterday as premises opened once again while several other European countries relaxed lockdown restrictions.
As the peak of the pandemic in some of the worst-hit countries appeared to have passed, governments were gradually starting staged returns to normal life.
Over the weekend Italy and Spain recorded their lowest death tolls since March.
Customers
Italian authorities revealed that the number who died from Covid19 was 145, the smallest since March 9. In Spain, it was 87 – the first time in two months it was below 100.
Yesterday most businesses in Italy, including bars and hairdressers, finally began reopening their doors for the first time in more than two months.
But strict social distancing measures were put in place.
Customers were soon cautiously sipping their morning cappuccinos at their favourite cafes and bars.
Valentino Casanova, a barman working in Rome’s central Piazza del Popolo, said: “I haven’t worked for two and a half months. It’s a beautiful, exciting day.”
The mass reopening across Italy came some 10 weeks after it imposed the world’s first national lockdown of the coronavirus pandemic.
As well as bars and restaurants, Italians also yesterday saw shops, hairdressers and church services all beginning once again as it marked the country’s next stage of recovery.
Stefania Ziggiotto, a hairdresser in theAlpine resort of Courmayeur, said: “I already have 150 appointments, all very urgent, all of them insisting that they must be first on the list.”
Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte admitted that reopening the economy brings with it a risk of new outbreaks of coronavirus, but he added “we must accept it”.
Mr Conte acknowledged “the contagion curve” could rise again, but the country could no longer afford to wait for a vaccine.
Many restaurants and cafes – central to Italy’s economy – were already on the verge of collapse and there are fears that several may still not survive.
Mr Conte announced that travel to and from Italy, and between the country’s regions, would be allowed from June 3. Gyms, swimming pools and sports centres will reopen on May 25, and cinemas and theatres on June 15.
Travellers from EU countries will be able to enter Italy without going into a two-week quarantine.
Mr Conte said in a televised address: “We’re facing a calculated risk in the knowledge that the contagion curve may rise again.We have to accept it otherwise we will never be able to start up again.”
Elsewhere, there was also a further loosening of restrictions in Spain yesterday.
People living outside Madrid and Barcelona were allowed to meet in groups of 10. The Netherlands,
Portugal, Greece, Denmark and Ireland also began easing their lockdown measures as national governments considered the best way to return to normal life and get their economies moving once more.
In Belgium, youngsters began a staged return to schools yesterday.
It comes a week on from the reopening of all shops across the country with both primary and secondary schools opening again for selected year groups.
Belgian authorities had reported fewer than 50 Covid-19 deaths a day for two consecutive days, the lowest figure for almost two months.