Dentists, hair salons, beaches: Lockdowns ease but not in US

Tattoo parlors and hair salons in Denmark. Beaches in Australia. Bookstores in Germany. Nations around the world took advantage Monday of their flattening coronavirus infection curves to tentatively ease lockdowns, edging toward a new yet unknown state of normal amid a devastating pandemic.

China, where the virus started its relentless march around the globe late last year, has already been re-opening from a strict lockdown for a few weeks.

But the nations testing out the waters Monday were democracies, not a hierarchical Communist system, and the sheer variety of choices each made offers plenty of options for U.S. lawmakers and communities to ponder.

The game plan is to open up but maintain enough social distancing to prevent new flareups of the virus that has infected 2.4 million people worldwide, killed more than 165,000 and sent the global economy into a tailspin.

(Easing lockdowns) is not the end of the epidemic in any country. It's just the beginning of the next phase,'' the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, told G-20 health ministers in an online meeting.

He sternly warned governments not to rush to return to the old normal, saying it is critical that these measures are a phased process. The debate over easing lockdowns is growing ever more heated in the United States, where President Donald Trump and his administration say parts of the nation are ready to begin a gradual return to normalcy.

Yet many governors counter that woefully inadequate federal actions, like a lack of testing supplies, is hindering their response to the pandemic. They say their hard-won successes over the past weeks of battling the virus will be for nought if they reopen their economies too soon and get hit by a second wave of infections.

We showed that we can control the beast and when you close down, you can actually slow that infection rate, but this is only halftime, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo told reporters. We still have to make sure that we keep that beast under control, we keep that infection rate down.''
Still, Gucci on Monday restarted some workshops for leather accessories and footwear, agreeing with unions to provide "maximum security for workers.''