Austria allowed thousands of shops to reopen on Tuesday, becoming one of the first countries in Europe to loosen its lockdown imposed to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Austria acted early in its outbreak to close schools, bars, theatres, restaurants, non-essential shops and other gathering places roughly four weeks ago. It has told the public to stay home and work from there if possible.
The Alpine republic has fared relatively well so far, having reported 384 deaths in total, fewer than some larger European countries have been suffering each day. The daily increase in confirmed cases has fallen to low single digits in percentage terms and hospitalizations have stabilized.