Switzerland has announced a three-stage easing of the restrictions imposed to suppress the Covid-19 pandemic, with some shops and services allowed to reopen from 27 April.
Officials had stopped short of imposing full confinement in emergency measures introduced last month to combat the new coronavirus, which has killed more than 1,000 people in the Alpine country.
Those restrictions will be gradually eased in three stages: on 27 April, 11 May and finally on 8 June, the government said. "We have been able to slow down the infections, the hospitals are not overcrowded, which is good news, and we can now foresee some relaxation," Swiss President Simonetta Sommaruga told a press conference in Bern.