Barriers and millions of masks appeared Monday on the streets of Europe's newly reopened cities, as France and Belgium emerged from lockdowns, the Netherlands sent children back to school and Greece and Spain further eased restrictions. All faced a delicate balance of trying to restart battered economies without fuelling a second wave of Coronavirus infections.

With Monday's partial reopening, crowds quickly developed at some metro stations in Paris, one of France's viral hot spots. A last-minute legal challenge emerged to the government's practice of confining people to their own regions, further confusing the post-lockdown landscape.
Roughly half of Spain's 47 million people stepped into a softer version of the strict confinement, beginning to socialise, shop in small stores and enjoy outdoor eating, but its biggest cities, Madrid and Barcelona, are under lockdown.