Easing French coronavirus lockdown will ‘spark second wave of cases’

French President Emmanuel Macron
AP

France has been warned it faces an inevitable “second wave” of coronavirus as the country prepares to take its first significant steps out of lockdown.

President Emmanuel Macron has already announced that schools and nurseries will progressively be reopened from Monday as part of a phased revival of activity.

But Olivier Schwartz, head of the virus department at France’s Pasteur Institute, issued a word of caution.

“There will be a second wave, but the problem is to which extent. Is it a small wave or a big wave? It’s too early to say,” he said.

In Germany, Angela Merkel’s chief of staff today said the pandemic would continue to affect his country for many months despite the optimism generated by yesterday’s relaxation of controls.

Helge Braun said: “We are not living after the pandemic now — rather we are living in the middle of a pandemic, one that will be with us for a while — at least for this year and that’s being very optimistic.”

Europe starts to ease itself out of Coronavirus lockdown

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All shops are being allowed to reopen and football’s Bundesliga can resume. Regional leaders will be given power to reopen other businesses, although an “emergency brake” would be applied locally where more than 50 new infections are registered per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period.

Meanwhile, Cyprus, one of the continent’s least-affected countries, has started allowing people into the sea for the first time since March.

Cypriots are also being allowed to leave their homes up to three times a day, instead of just once. In Poland, the general election scheduled for Sunday has been postponed. The election — which will be a postal-only ballot — will be rescheduled to a date “as soon as possible”, but not until June at the earliest.

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