Straining over the counter of his stall, Suat Aslan extends a re-fashioned broomstick with a basket at its end to serve his latest drive-by customer with an ice-cream.

Aslan, 55, has been a fixture for 15 years on the pretty main square in Grieskirchen, a town of almost 5,000 people in upper Austria, where he serves 40 flavours through the spring and summer months.

Unsurprisingly, this year has been very different. Only in the past fortnight have otherwise shuttered restaurants been allowed to offer a takeaway service, after a lockdown enforced from mid-March to halt the spread of coronavirus.

Now, however, there is some light at the end of the tunnel for Aslan and many others like him. From mid-May, he hopes to be able to put away his broomstick as Austria, along with Denmark, the Czech Republic, Norway and the Faroe Islands, prepare to ease some of the lockdown restrictions.

Small shops in Austria will reopen from 14 April, larger ones from 1 May, and it is hoped that all restaurants and hotels will follow from mid-May. With a total death toll of 319 and infection rates believed to be past their peak, Austria’s chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, has talked of a “resurrection” after Easter.

But while there is great relief at the glimpse of a path to normality, it is tempered by anxiety. After months of being told of the risks of the coronavirus and accepting the need for the most draconian measures, are people really ready to return to normal?

Next week, the European commission will publish a “European roadmap towards exiting from the Covid-19 pandemic” against a backdrop of growing concern in Brussels over the potential for a messy, and deadly, exit from the current restrictive measures.

A draft copy of the guidance, seen by the Observer, appeals for member states to lift their restrictions in a coordinated way, guided by science. “Any level of (gradual) relaxation of the confinement will unavoidably lead to a corresponding increase in new cases,” the commission’s document warns.

In Denmark, where authorities have contained the virus far more effectively than in many neighbouring countries and the death toll remains below 250, there has nonetheless been anger and disbelief in some quarters at the proposal that primary school children return to class immediately after Easter this week.

“My jaw dropped. I thought they could not be serious,” said Sandra Andersen, a mother of two girls aged five and nine. “I have the feeling that the children are guinea pigs because we don’t know about the virus, and it is constantly evolving negatively,” she told newspaper Politiken. “It is crazy to send the little ones out first, who don’t understand the rules.”

Andersen set up a Facebook page entitled “My kid is not going to be a guinea pig for Covid-19”, which has attracted more than 37,000 members since prime minister Mette Frederiksen made her announcement about the partial lifting of lockdown measures.

It is full of posts from nervous parents who insist that they will not send their children back to school, and others from people who accuse Andersen of scaremongering.

There's a lot of excitement because this lockdown has been difficult. But we all know the disease hasn't been defeated Chiara Aslan, Grieskirchen, Austria

One parent who posted on the website, under the name Diana Berg, writes that she is scared for her 12-year-old son. “I’m trying to get the calm – by saying it’s OK … kids don’t get hit so hard … BUT … deep down, I’m more scared! But I can’t show that! I have to be strong. But the little voice in my stomach asks me as a mother: how can you send out a child, in an uncertain world when you don’t even dare to move outside yourself due to uncertainty?”

Anders Bockhahn, another member of the Facebook page, who has two sons aged seven and four, said: “You send children into something you don’t know about. Those with the longest life ahead of them. And I’m scared because nobody knows about the virus and nobody knows what’s going to happen.”

The anxiety may be understandable but Christian Wejse, a clinical researcher at the Department of Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital, insists that the Danish government is being led by science.

“We have imposed strong social distancing, it works, and the healthcare system can manage the current workload, so we lift restrictions on the one group in society where data has clearly shown that there is extremely low risk involved,” Wejse said. “And we try to keep the virus away from those who will be most harmed. It is not the economy dictating where to open up; it’s the low admittance rate and case fatality rate among the youngest groups.”

Back in Grieskirchen, Aslan is enjoying swift business this sunny Easter weekend. Last Sunday, he had about 250 customers and even local TV and newspaper reporters turned up to cover his reopening. “People came from the surrounding villages,” his daughter Chiara, 19, said. “There is a lot of excitement because, of course, this lockdown has been getting more difficult and people need a highlight in their day.”

Chiara, an English and geography student at Graz university, says she tries not to worry about the risks as Austria opens for business again. “But, yes, of course, we all know the disease isn’t defeated,” she said.