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Which countries are closest to lifting the first lockdown? Italy is generating record death tolls every day but that could mean the pandemic will die down soon (pardon the phrasing.) I feel like that and Germany might see some improvement by the end of April, they've been taking things quite seriously.

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China is in the process of lifting its lockdown right now. The total number of active cases is 5K out of a total of 81K. They are starting to let the healthy out of quarantine, re-opening tourist attractions and getting back to work.

So they claim. Anything out of China should be taken with a healthy pinch of skepticism.

Apple has re-opened Apple stores and factories there, while shutting down Apple stores everywhere else. No matter how you feel about the PRC there's no reason to doubt Tim Cook.

My coworkers in China confirm that people are gradually getting back to work, and I have no reason to doubt them.

The procedure seems quite interesting: Instead of lifting quarantine for everyone at once, the return to work is rolled out slowly (some %age of workers return the first day, some more the next day), so the situation can be monitored.

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