Children up to the age of 11 are returning to nurseries and schools across Denmark, as the government becomes the first in Europe to relax coronavirus restrictions on education.
Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen welcomed children as they went back to school in the capital Copenhagen.
Denmark was among the first countries in Europe to impose a lockdown, with schools closed on 12 March.
Infection rates have been low but critics warn the strategy is risky.
“We’re all a bit nervous and we’ll have to ensure that we stick to hygiene rules,” Elisa Rimpler of the BUPL, the Danish Union of Early Childhood and Youth Educators, told the BBC.
“We have a lot of washing hands during the day. We don’t have masks and we have to keep a good distance from each other so that’s a very difficult task.”
Denmark’s move came as European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen set out a roadmap on Wednesday for a gradual lifting of restrictions across the 27-state bloc, but made clear it was not a signal to act immediately.
She set out key conditions involving a significant decrease in the spread of Covid-19, capacity in the health system, surveillance and monitoring. A donors’ conference will take place online for governments and organisations to pledge money in search of a vaccine, Mrs von der Leyen added.
The head of the SSI infectious diseases institute said Denmark had managed to reduce the number of other people that one positive case infects from 2.6 people before the 12 March lockdown, to 0.6.
Tyra Grove Krause told Danish TV that the success had proved how social distancing, hygiene and other measures such as working from home could work.
The prime minister has said so much progress has been made that she is discussing with political partners how to push forward with a further easing of the restrictions.
On a visit to a school in the Valby area of the capital, Ms Frederiksen said she understood that some parents still preferred to keep their children at home.
Some political figures have expressed concerns that guidelines setting out who should go back to school are unclear. The schools themselves will decide whether staff in an at-risk category should be at work or remain at home.
