Easying Lockdown - Phase 0

Denmark and Austria were the first countries to ease lock-down measures. Denmark opened schools more than two weeks ago, while Norway opened schools starting on April 27. They have also started to open more businesses. Denmark reports there is no acceleration in the virus spread. Both Norway and Denmark are still less liberal than Sweden.

The Czechs also report that the spread of COVID-19 is contained as the country reopens. It will be interesting to see if restrictions played 'the role' in this positive outcome or if they've had immunity to COVID-19 due to a missed wave in December/January/February.

Spain, France and Italy have started to ease restrictions. Towards the end of April Spain finally allowed its children (under the age of 14) to go outside for an hour a day (Edward was pretty unhappy about this restriction), and now, adults are allowed to exercise, too -- within limited hours as well. The deaths in France, Spain and Germany have fallen under 300, and every infected person infects less than one other person, which means the number of infections is going down. France plans to ease lock-down starting on May 11.

Germany is set to reopen smaller museums, galleries, playgrounds and zoos. They never locked people inside in the first place.

The UK still has a relatively high death rate. However, Boris Johnson reports the NHS is doing well and not overwhelmed. The number of deaths have been around 700 for the past few days. The UK is set to have the highest death rate in Europe -- to be fair -- they have much worse weather than the other competitors for this spot, i.e., France, Spain, and Italy.

Some states in the US are opening as well and some seem to add restrictions -- but there it's too early to tell what the effects will be. The numbers for countries who are easing lock-down measures in Europe are encouraging so far.

Poland has started lifting restrictions on April 20 and is allowing people to go outside, e.g., parks, forests -- without masks as long as they keep the 2 m distance. The ease of restrictions in Poland is relevant to Romania because they have very similar numbers. Romania has not eased any restrictions officially.

In Romania, schools and factories remain closed. We have seen more small stores open. The number of cases has been going down, and the number of deaths still hovers around 30. They have taken aggressive measures surrounding the 1st of May -- to make sure people don't celebrate by going outside. It's still unclear that going outside hastens the spread of the virus as long as social distancing measures are obeyed. The number of fatalities are under 800 with many suffering from severe pre-existent conditions.  

Given that the first COVID-19 death was reported on March 22 -- a patient who came home to die from terminal lung cancer -- and that about 800 people die daily from all causes combined, the number COVID-19 deaths is not high. Many believe we had a worse than usual flu season and that many of those cases where COVID-19.