TOP HEADLINES:

- UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson says he believes the country is 'coming to the end of the first phase' of the virus during a media briefing after returning to work for the first time in more than three weeks on Monday morning.

- Children have begun returning to schools in Norway after the government claimed it has the virus under control.

- Spain's death toll rose to 23,521 on Monday after 331 more fatalities were announced. The number is a slight rise from Sunday, when 288 new fatalities were recorded.

- Deaths in the UK have risen by 360 in the past 24 hours. The cumulative total now stands at 21,092.

- German businesses such as Puma and Allianz have called for COVID-19-related state aid to coincide with climate action. 

- French authorities have seized 140,000 protective face masks intended to be sold on the black market.

- Germany's confirmed cases rose by 1,018 to 155,193 on Monday. Its death toll also increased, to 5,750 after 110 more fatalities were confirmed.

- A group of 25 Dutch students who were in the middle of a six-week school trip to Cuba when the virus caused airports to close, have arrived home after successfully sailing across the Atlantic Ocean.

- King's Day in the Netherlands is usually celebrated on streets across the country. But this year everyone will be celebrating the King's birthday from home. 

- Russia has reported 6,198 new cases in the past 24 hours, a slight decrease from the 6,361 the previous day.

- German airline Condor will be handed $596 million from the German government and the state of Hesse after a takeover deal fell through.

- Germany's economy minister, Peter Altmaier, has urged the country's 16 states on Monday to ease lockdown measures slowly to avoid a further outbreak of the virus.

- Formula One CEO Chase Carey says the motor racing season is targeting a start date of 3 July in Austria. 

- Czechia has reopened many shops outside shopping malls after the government brought forward its five-stage lockdown exit plan. 

- The Netherlands has reported 400 new confirmed cases and 43 new fatalities bringing the totals up to 38,245 and 4,518 respectively. 

- Sweden's confirmed cases have risen by 286 in the past 24 hours, with 80 more deaths as the country continues to allow schools, cafes, bars and businesses to remain open. 

- Hairdressers, massage parlors and garden centers were among those businesses able to reopen in Switzerland on Monday as the government slowly starts to ease its lockdown restrictions. 

ACROSS EUROPE

By Andrew Wilson in the UK

The Prime Minister, Boris Johnson, returns to work full-time today and will be greeted by an overflowing in-tray. He will immediately resume chairing the morning coronavirus war committee but is unlikely to lead the regular televised public briefings until later in the week.

Johnson faces a cabinet increasingly split over both the timing and strategy of easing the public lockdown measures. His first task will be to unite the two apparently competing priorities of public health and economic survival.

Testing is still falling short of government expectations and PPE supplies are still a challenge. Against this backdrop, the prime minister has to privately and publicly start managing competing expectations over the best way forward for the UK.

Discussions have begun about prospects for schools and businesses but the next deadline for real review remains 7 May.

The foreign secretary, Dominic Raab, has confirmed that an effective vaccine against the new coronavirus is not likely to be ready this year.

By Toni Waterman in Brussels

The European Union

As the European Commission hammers away at a recovery fund proposal, its economy commissioner, Paolo Gentiloni, has ideas of his own. He told an Italian TV station on Sunday the recovery fund should be worth more than $1.6 trillion and be available by mid-September. "We cannot wait two years, like it happened between the end of World War II and the Marshall Plan," he reportedly said. 

The Commission is hard at work trying to craft a plan that will be palatable to all parties. It's due to present the proposal on 6 May. The biggest point of contention is likely to be on how the fund will balance grants and loans. 

Meanwhile, EU tourism ministers will hold a call on Monday to discuss actions to support the struggling industry. Across the bloc, tourism accounts for 10 percent of GDP. COVID-19 has wiped out billions of dollars in revenue and countless jobs. 

Belgium

"No one will escape." That's the message from Belgium's top law enforcement authority, which says it will go to great lengths to collect fines issued to people who violated the country's lockdown measures. More than 60,000 tickets have been issued since the measures came into force in mid-March. 

The president of the Board of Prosecutors General, Erwin Dernicourt, said if an offender fails to pay their fine, the amount will be added to their tax receipt. 

Meanwhile, the government laid out its lockdown exit strategy. Some businesses will be allowed to reopen on 4 May, and all shops will have the go-ahead come 11 May. Schools will gradually reopen on 18 May, but there is no clear date when restaurants and cafes will resume normal operations. The government says it will consider it from 8 June.

By Ross Cullen in Paris

France has noted a major drop in the number of people who have died from COVID-19, with the lowest daily toll in five weeks. The number of fatalities in nursing homes has also dropped below 100. 

The news comes 24 hours before prime minister Edouard Philippe is set to present the government's plan for how to ease the lockdown. 

The confinement measures are set to come to an official end on 11 May and the prime minister will publish the so-called "déconfinement" strategy before putting the plans to a vote in the National Assembly, where President Emmanuel Macron's En Marche party has a majority.

By Julia Lyubova in Geneva

Switzerland began easing its COVID-19 restrictions on Monday. Swiss retail and cosmetic businesses are allowed to reopen. This includes hairdressers, massage salons, beauty salons, garden centers and hardware stores. Hospitals and medical centers performing non-essential procedures are also allowed to get back to business. This includes dentists and physiotherapists who are now allowed to carry out general work that has been restricted by the coronavirus.

This is stage one of the Swiss government's three-step plan to lift the restrictions imposed to suppress the COVID-19 pandemic. President Simonetta Sommaruga said it was possible because Switzerland has been able to slow down the infections and Swiss hospitals are not overcrowded.

Some businesses are allowed to open their doors to customers, others will be required or recommended to have staff wear medical masks. 

The next stage is scheduled for 11 May, when it will be compulsory schools to restart and all remaining shops and markets will be allowed to open. 

By Ira Spitzer in Berlin

New rules have gone into force in Germany requiring everyone except small children to wear masks in certain shared spaces such as stores and public transportation. The specific rules vary across the country's 16 states. It's still unclear exactly how the rules will be enforced.

According to the Suedeutsche Zeitung newspaper, Germany's governing coalition expects the coronavirus pandemic to cause the biggest slump in economic growth since the founding of the modern German state in 1949. In its spring forecast, which is to be presented on Wednesday, the government predicts gross domestic product to shrink by 6.3 percent this year, the newspaper reports.

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CGTN Europe has been providing in-depth coverage of the novel coronavirus story as it has unfolded. Here you can read the essential information about the crisis.

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