MAIN HEADLINES:

– After a videoconference with state leaders, German chancellor Angela Merkel has announced the conditional reopening of playgrounds, museums and churches. However, holidays abroad are still not an option. 

– Italian premier Giuseppe Conte said some regions might be able to loosen coronavirus restrictions sooner than others – but warned local authorities against rushed, unilateral decisions.

– Denmark, the first country outside Asia to ease its lockdown, said loosening its restrictions from mid-April has not had any ill effects.

– U.S. pharmaceutical company Pfizer aims to make 10 to 20 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine it is developing with Germany's BioNtech by the end of 2020 for possible emergency use depending on trial results.

– UK prime minister Boris Johnson has announced he will set out his roadmap next week for restarting the economy after lockdown. Johnson said: "We're past the peak and we're on the downward slope." 

- Johnson also signaled face coverings would have a role to play in the opening up of the UK.

– The European Central Bank will be in crisis-fighting mode until 2021, says its president Christine Lagarde, as the eurozone's "unprecedented decline" is likely to steepen before it recovers. A series of national economic results released on Thursday showed sharp, often historic plunges in GDP from major countries including Spain, France and Germany.   

– COVID-19's reproduction rate in Germany is currently averaging 0.76, according to the RKI public health authority. As the rate reflects the number each person will subsequently infect, a number below 1 means that new cases should continue to drop.

– Ukraine's health minister has asked the public for patience after anti-lockdown protests. "Quarantine was introduced very quickly and it was thanks to this that we managed to contain the situation," said Maksym Stepanov; Ukraine has had 261 COVID-19 deaths from a population of 42 million.

– Slovenia has started to ease restrictions by allowing citizens to travel outside their local municipalities. Prime minister Janez Jansa praised the country of 2 million, which has suffered 89 deaths: "Thanks to you, Slovenia is the most successful among all neighbours of the focal country Italy."

– Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg has donated $200,000 to UNICEF's new campaign to help protect children from the pandemic with the purchase of soap, masks and gloves.

– Improved air quality in Europe due to lockdowns has delivered health benefits equivalent to avoiding 11,300 premature deaths, according to a study published on Thursday. "You could compare it to everyone in Europe stopping smoking for a month," said an analyst at the Helsinki-based Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.

– Ireland's chief medical officer doubts restrictions will ease before next Tuesday's scheduled expiry date. "If we were to ease restrictions at this moment in time, we could potentially run into difficulties sooner," said Tony Holohan. 

ACROSS EUROPE:

Ross Cullen in Paris

French GDP shrank 5.8 percent in the first quarter of 2020, according to France's official INSEE statistics agency, the sharpest squeeze since World War II. After contracting by 0.1 percent in the last quarter of 2019, this confirmation of another drop in gross domestic product now officially means France is in recession, something that had already been accepted by economists. 

INSEE said consumer spending dropped 6.1 percent and business investment fell 11.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous three months. The lockdown here is due to begin winding down from 11 May, and the government has brought in a $120 billion package of measures to try to support companies and workers.

Ira Spitzer in Berlin

The number of unemployed people in Germany rose in April by 308,000, bringing the unemployment rate to 5.8 percent. In addition, German companies have applied to enrol 10.1 million workers in the country's short-term work program, a furlough scheme designed to prevent lay-offs.

The head of Germany's Robert Koch Institute said 467,000 coronavirus tests were carried out last week and that the number of positive test results was around 5 percent. He also said the virus's reproduction rate was 0.76, meaning that on average an infected person would spread the virus to fewer than one person.

German chancellor Angela Merkel will meet with state leaders on Thursday to discuss the possible loosening of restrictions, including a proposed plan to play professional football matches without spectators.

Isobel Ewing in Budapest

Hungary's prime minister, Viktor Orban, has announced the country's fight against the virus has entered a new phase, meaning "life can restart, but we must act gradually and according to a strict timetable." 

Orban says a high level of protection must be maintained for the elderly and people living in Budapest and its surroundings, because this is the most infected part of the country.

Movement restrictions in the capital will stay in force, but they will be relaxed in the countryside.

This means shops can reopen with regular hours, terraces and gardens of restaurants and cafes can reopen and people can visit parks.

However, practising social distancing and wearing masks will remain compulsory in shops and on public transport.

"Thanks to our joint effort, Hungary is ready to handle even large-scale disease," said the prime minister in a video posted to his Facebook page. "Today, no one has to worry any longer about being left without adequate care."

Orban was referring to the government decree that ordered public hospitals to make 60 percent of their beds free for COVID-19 patients.

Nicole Johnston in London

It's a big day ahead for the UK government's strategy to tackle COVID-19. Thursday is the deadline to meet its own target of increasing testing to 100,000 people per day by the end of April. 

On Tuesday it tested 52,000 people. Public Health England has said it is "pretty confident" the target will be met but with some delay in the figures being reported.

Meanwhile, prime minister Boris Johnson is due to chair the cabinet meeting and present the daily press briefing. It will be the first time Johnson has done so since becoming ill with the virus. He's now recovered.

Johnson's government has not detailed any plans on how it will ease restrictions or move out of lockdown in England, although Wales and Scotland have given an outline of their plans. The UK's lockdown is due to be reviewed on 7 May.

The government is also under fire for the huge number of care home deaths. By the middle of April, there were 3,700 deaths in care homes with COVID-19 mentioned on the death certificate. It's now expected that number could be more than 6,000 people. 

Care home staff have criticized the government for "neglecting" the sector, failing to provide adequate personal protective equipment and leaving infected elderly patients to die in care homes. On Tuesday, the health secretary, Matt Hancock, said it was unreasonable to expect the government to apologize for its action in care homes.

Toni Waterman in Brussels

Belgium: Goodbye snacks, hello face masks. Vending machines across 80 Belgian rail stations are being emptied to make room for fabric masks and hand gel. It's not clear how much the coronavirus-fighting products will cost. 

Come Monday, wearing a face mask while using public transport will be mandatory, as part of the government's lockdown-easing measures. Offenders can be fined up to $271.

European Union: Stunningly gloomy economic data is rolling into Brussels from across Europe, piling pressure on the European Commission to craft a recovery package hefty enough to mitigate the economic devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic. 

Growth contracted by the sharpest pace on record in both the euro area and the EU in the first quarter, at -3.8 percent and -3.5 percent respectively. Eurostat data also showed unemployment ticked higher in the month of March, when lockdown measures were first introduced. It sets the stage for a harrowing Q2, which will reflect many more weeks of lockdown measures. 

The Commission will unveil its long-term budget proposal next week. It will be linked to a coronavirus recovery fund, which could top $1.5 trillion.

FROM OUR GLOBAL COLLEAGUES:

CGTN China: 'Gunboat diplomacy' is over – put lives first, urges China's UK ambassador

CGTN America: 'Quarantine Together' dating app created for the pandemic times

CGTN Africa: Guinea-Bissau PM and three ministers test positive for COVID-19

MORE FROM CGTN:

Check out The Pandemic Playbook, CGTN Europe's major investigation into the lessons learned from COVID-19

Sign up here to get the COVID-19 Europe bulletin sent directly to your inbox