France and Spain expected to announce easing of lockdowns

AKIPRESS.COM - France and Spain are expected to announce plans to lift their strict Covid-19 lockdowns, even as official figures in Germany showed the infection rate starting to rise again after restrictions there were eased, The Guardian reports. Governments across Europe are wrestling with the conundrum of how best to lift often draconian confinement measures that are exacting a disastrous toll on their economies, while avoiding a dangerous second wave of contagion.
The French prime minister, Edouard Philippe, will address the lower house of parliament at 3pm local time on Tuesday to reveal how the country, which has recorded more than 23,000 deaths from coronavirus, plans to exit its six-week-old lockdown.
Philippe's announcement will be followed by a debate and a vote, with just 75 of France's 577 MPs allowed into the Assemblée Nationale in order to respect social distancing. All others will vote by proxy.
The president, Emmanuel Macron, had earlier announced that the lockdown would be lifted from 11 May, but was vague on the details apart from saying pupils would start returning to school from that date and cafes and restaurants would stay shut.
The plan has been agreed with Macron and follows a fortnight of intense discussion between ministers, each of whom was asked to recommend measures for their own area of responsibility, and the government's specialist scientific committee.
The difficulties of the trade-offs involved in what is promised to be a "progressive and controlled easing of confinement" are already apparent: the scientific council has said it favoured schools reopening only in the autumn, while acknowledging the "political" decision of the government to reopen them earlier.
Philippe is expected to announce when face masks must be worn; who will be tested for the virus; which workers are expected to return to their jobs; what shops will reopen and when; and what arrangements have been made for public transport.
France's hard-hit restaurants, cafes and bars, however, are unlikely to reopen for several weeks yet and the government is not expected to tell them until the end of May when they can open.
"The virus does not like the French way of life," Macron told a meeting of industry representatives last week that included several star chefs.