What will happen next? COVID19

As the number of daily infections and deaths has plateaued in many places, European countries are taking tentative steps to ease their lockdown measures with varying approaches.

Italy's daily coronavirus death toll is at its lowest since March 14 and since May 4, citizens are allowed to visit their relatives in small numbers. Factories and construction sites will be allowed to reopen, but schools will remain closed until September. In Spain, parents are now allowed to take their children outside once per day and, if the toll continues to slow, all citizens will be allowed to exercise and walk outdoors from May 2.

The UK will remain on lockdown until at least June 1, however, prime minister Boris Johnson announced on May 10 that construction and manufacturing workers in England should start returning to work. If the reproduction number remains below 1, he said, the country might be in a position to begin the phased re-opening of shops and get primary pupils back into schools in June. Some cafes and restaurants with outdoor space, places of worship, theatres and cinemas might open their doors again from July with extra hygiene and social distancing measures.

In order to prevent a deadly second wave of infections, the UK and its European neighbours are ramping up testing in the wider community. The UK Department of Health and Social Care will contact 20,000 households in England and invite them to take part in an initial study to track coronavirus transmission. All participants will receive a nose and throat swab to test for whether or not they currently have the virus and adults in some 1,000 of the households will provide monthly blood samples to find out what proportion of the population has developed antibodies to Covid-19. The study is set to be extended to 300,000 people over the next 12 months.

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Work on contact tracing apps is also underway in the UK. But unlike in countries like South Korea and China, which use a combination of CCTV, credit card data and geolocation information, the UK's app will rely on the short-range wireless technology Bluetooth to trace people's location. The idea is that when a person has crossed paths with someone who has tested positive for coronavirus, the app can be instantly alert them and let them request a test.