Economies reopen but chaos abounds

A waiter serves customers at a cafe in Palma de Mallorca on Monday as Spain eases lockdown. Pic/AFP

Barriers and millions of masks appeared Monday on the streets of Europe's newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school and Greece and Spain further eased restrictions. All faced a delicate balance of trying to restart battered economies without fuelling a second wave of Coronavirus infections.

With Monday's partial reopening, crowds quickly developed at some metro stations in Paris, one of France's viral hot spots. A last-minute legal challenge emerged to the government's practice of confining people to their own regions, further confusing the post-lockdown landscape.
Roughly half of Spain's 47 million people stepped into a softer version of the strict confinement, beginning to socialise, shop in small stores and enjoy outdoor eating, but its biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, are under lockdown.

New clusters worry nations
Fears about new waves of infection have been born out in Germany, where a new cluster was linked to a slaughterhouse; and in South Korea, where a single nightclub customer was linked to 85 new infections. The South Korean government halt school re-openings that had been planned for this week and re-imposed restrictions on nightclubs and bars. It is now trying to track 5,500 people who had visited a Seoul entertainment district. In Germany, gyms re-opened in the most populous state, but authorities there and in France have said any backsliding in the daily infections could lead to new restrictions.

Confusion in the UK
In the UK, which has the second-most COVID-19 deaths in the world, Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced a modest easing of the country's lockdown but urged citizens not to surrender the progress already made. In the US, Trump administration officials spoke optimistically about a relatively quick rebound from the pandemic - but then announced that Vice President Mike Pence "self-isolating" after one of his aides tested positive.

Wuhan official fired

Zhang Yuxin, a local member of the ruling Communist Party of China, was fired for poor management of the closing-off and control of the residential community in Wuhan after six new COVID-19 cases were found. Five cases were reported on Sunday, while one on Saturday.

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