After France, Greece to ease lockdown restrictions; Spain rollback until end June

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis in a televised address to the nations said: "Having contained the first wave of the virus, we are now ready to move to the second phase, the gradual de-escalation of lockdown measures."

Greece imposed a nationwide lockdown on March 23 as the COVID-19 cases increased. The death toll in Greece due to coronavirus has reached 136 which is a very small number compared to Italy, Spain and France who have reported thousands of deaths in the past two months.

"Exit from quarantine will be carried out step by step. Nobody can rule out a potential revival of the threat," Mitsotakis said.

"Shopping centres will be allowed to resume trading on June 1," Mitsotakis added.

The PM allowed bookshops, electronic goods stores, vehicle testing centers and hair salons toopen.

The country's economy has been hit hard due to the lockdownparticularly the tourism sector which accounts for major part of the country's revenue.

The move by the Greek government comes just hours after French PM Édouard Philippe announced the country would be easing restrictions from May 11. The French PM said shops, markets can reopen May 11, but not restaurants and bars.

The French premier declared that face masks will be mandatory in public transport. "We will have to learn to live with the virus," Philippe told the French Parliament on Tuesday.

However, Philippe maintained that professional football and rugby cannot be allowed to start before September.

Meanwhile, Spanish PMPedro Sanchez said the country would stage virus rollback in four phases till June end.

"In the best-case scenario, this de-escalation phase will take a minimum of six weeks and the maximum duration we want to see is eight weeks for the whole of Spain," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said.