Certain shops reopen in Italy and Austria, while some Spanish workers return as country proceeds ‘with utmost caution’

Italy, Spain and Austria have allowed partial returns to work as countries across Europe reported further falls in new Covid-19 cases and began taking their first cautious steps out of lockdown to revive battered economies.

With the number of coronavirus infections nearing 2m globally, the International Monetary Fund said on Tuesday it expected the global economy to shrink by 3.0% in 2020 – with rich western economies set to contract by 6.1% - in the steepest downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

Workers in Spain returned to some factory and construction jobs as the health ministry said that while the country’s death toll had surpassed 18,000, the highest in Europe after Italy, its daily increase in new cases was the lowest since 17 March.

Most shops and services remained closed, however, and office staff must still work from home if they can. Salvador Illa, the health minister, said he would proceed “with the utmost caution and prudence … and always based on scientific evidence”.

Bookshops, laundries, stationers and children’s clothes stores reopened on a trial basis in some regions of Italy, where the death toll passed 21,000 on Tuesday but new confirmed infections were the lowest since 13 March and the number of critically ill patients dropped for the 11th day in a row.

Forestry industry workers were been allowed to return to work, as well as factories making computers and IT equipment, as the country eases its way towards phase two of the crisis, due to begin after the current lockdown ends on 4 May.

Austria reopens small shops and parks as coronavirus lockdown is relaxed Read more

Austria, which has recorded a total of 384 deaths with 14,000 confirmed cases, also began loosening restrictions, allowing public parks, small shops and DIY and gardening supply stores to reopen. If the outbreak remains under control, all stores should reopen on 2 May and restaurants in mid-May.

Customers must wear masks and observe strict distancing rules, with only one person for every every 20 sq metres (215 sq ft) of retail space. The chancellor, Sebastian Kurz, said the country was “on the right track” and thanked citizens for their discipline. “We are now taking the first steps back to a new normality,” he said. “But the crisis is far from over.”

Denmark, one of the first EU countries to shut down, will reopen daycare centres and primary schools on Wednesday, allowing many parents to return to work. But restaurants and cafes will remain closed, and gatherings of more than 10 people are banned until at least 10 May, while larger gatherings may be allowed from August.

The World Health Organization said that while the number of new cases was easing in some parts of Europe, outbreaks continued to grow in the UK and Turkey. Globally, 90% of cases were coming from Europe and the US, spokeswoman Margaret Harris said on Tuesday. “So we are certainly not seeing the peak yet,” she said.

The European commission urged EU states to develop a uniform exit strategy that was “well coordinated between the member states, to avoid negative spillover effects,” saying that failure to do so could result in new spikes of the epidemic.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest A volunteer hands out masks to bus passengers in San Sebastian. Photograph: Gari Garaialde/Getty Images

As Europe’s governments balance the need to keep populations safe and avoid a second wave of infections against the desire to dodge the very worst impacts of economic recession, some continued to err on the side of caution.

The number of new confirmed cases in Germany fell for the fourth consecutive day on Tuesday, while the country’s death toll rose by 170 to 2,969 – far lower than in many countries. But authorities said it was too early to lift restrictions.

Lothar Wieler, the head of the Robert Koch Institute, said: “We can’t speak of containment yet: we still have high numbers each day. We are seeing a slowdown.” He urged Germans to wait and remain disciplined with social distancing measures.

The influential national Academy of Sciences Leopoldina has recommended the staggered return of children to schools and kindergartens after the Easter holidays once the infection rate falls further. The chancellor, Angela Merkel, is due to discuss possible paths out of the lockdown with ministers and state premiers on Wednesday.

In France, which has recorded nearly 15,000 Covid-19 deaths, Emmanuel Macron announced on Monday night that the country’s strict lockdown would be extended until 11 May, after which creches and primary and secondary schools would be able to progressively reopen.

But universities would stay closed except for online learning, the president said, while bars, restaurants and cinemas would stay closed and large public gatherings such as festivals would remain banned until at least mid-July. The government is drawing up a detailed lockdown exit plan to be published in two weeks.

According to the Johns Hopkins University tracker, coronavirus has infected 1,930,780 people worldwide and killed 120,450. Nearly half the world’s population is living under some form of lockdown.

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In other developments:

Sweden, which has not imposed a strict lockdown, said its death tally had passed 1,000, as some scientists continued to attack the government’s strategy.

India’s nationwide lockdown, the biggest in the world covering 1.3 billion people, has been extended until at least 3 May.

Authorities in Moscow have said the Russian capital may run out of hospital beds in the next two to three weeks as new confirmed infections in the Russian capital shot up by 1,489 overnight to 13,000.

The WHO said confirmed coronavirus cases in Africa had passed 15,000.

China said it was facing a new flare-up along its remote northern border with Russia and has rushed emergency medical units to the area.

The Tour de France will not be able to begin as originally planned. It is not clear whether it will be scrapped altogether.

In the US, meanwhile, Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said the country did not yet have the testing and tracing procedures needed to begin reopening its economy.

Adding a dose of caution to increasingly optimistic projections from Donald Trump, who has floated the idea of reopening some areas by 1 May, Fauci told the Associated Press: “We have to have something in place that is efficient and that we can rely on, and were not there yet.”

The US toll has hit 23,200 confirmed coronavirus deaths, making it by far the world’s worst-affected country. In New York state, where the virus has killed more than 10,000 people and unclaimed victims have been buried in unmarked mass graves, Andrew Cuomo, the state governor, said the worst might be over.

“I believe we can now start on the path to normalcy,” he said.