People in manufacturing, construction and some services are being allowed to return to work, but must stick to strict safety guidelines.

The rest of the population must still remain at home.

Almost 17,500 people with Covid-19 have died in Spain, but the rate of new infections has been falling.

Italy – the hardest-hit country in Europe, with almost 19,900 deaths – will allow a narrow range of firms to resume operations on Tuesday.

Spain’s health ministry said on Monday that the daily number of deaths had dipped slightly, with 517 reported in the previous 24 hours, compared with 619 announced on Sunday. The official total death toll is now 17,489.

The number of new infections continues to drop, with 3,477 confirmed cases bringing the total to 169,496.

“We are still far from victory, from the moment when we will recover normality in our lives,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez warned over the weekend.

“We are all keen to go back out on the streets… but our desire is even greater to win the war and prevent a relapse,” he added.

On Monday, the government lifted some of the restrictions put in place on 27 March and allowed businesses whose employees cannot work remotely to reopen.

Officials intend to distribute 10 million face masks on public transport.

The head of the regional administration in Catalonia, Quim Torra, said he would not comply with any easing of the lockdown for non-essential workers, warning that “the risk of a new outbreak and a second lockdown is enormous”.

Sánchez said the decision was taken after consulting a committee of experts.

He also noted that Spain had not entered the “second phase” of the fight against the coronavirus, when there would be any further loosening of the lockdown. That was at least two weeks away and would “be very gradual”, he added.

Builders can only work in areas away from local residents, so they cannot yet go back to doing home improvements.

Italy reported 431 new deaths on Sunday – the lowest for more than three weeks. However, the country is almost certain to join the United States on Monday with a death toll of more than 20,000.

Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said last week that the lockdown would continue until 3 May, but that a few types of shops and businesses would be allowed to reopen on Tuesday. They would include bookshops, stationers and shops selling children’s clothes, he said.

Factories will not reopen, although Mr Conte said he would continue to assess the trend of new infections and “act accordingly” if conditions allowed it.

In Germany, where 3,022 people with Covid-19 have died, pressure is also growing from businesses for a plan on how to exit the country’s lockdown. On Wednesday, Chancellor Angela Merkel will discuss a strategy with regional leaders.

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Neither Sanchez nor any of the other party leaders currently enjoy the parliamentary support required for such an effort, the royal family said in a statement released late Tuesday after two days of consultations with political leaders.

If Sanchez fails to form a government by a Sept. 23 deadline, King Felipe will have to dissolve parliament and set Nov. 10 as the date for fresh elections, the fourth since 2015.

Sanchez has been in office since June last year, after his predecessor, Mariano Rajoy of the conservative People’s Party (PP), lost a vote of confidence.

He called early elections in February after Catalan separatists refused to back his budget.

While Sanchez’s centre-left PSOE won the elections held on April 28, it fell well short of an absolute majority.

At the end of July, the prime minister failed in an attempt to have parliament back his bid to govern at the head of a minority government.

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The Manchester United player was not charged.

However, Sanchez, who was then leader of the opposition, publicly stated that he was “uneasy” with De Gea as Spain’s number one heading into the 2016 European Championship.

“From the off I gave a press conference saying it was all a lie but people spoke about me,” De Gea told Spanish sports newspaper Diario AS.

“In the end the truth comes to light and you could see that it was all a lie.”

Sanchez visited the Spain World Cup squad last week, of which Dea Gea is an integral member, before they left for Russia, using the occasion to clear the air with the 27-year-old face-to-face.

While appreciative of the personal apology, De Gea believes he should be given a public one.

“I accepted his apology politely. The thing is that what he said back then was in public and for that I think that his apology should also come in public,” he said.

“It’s also true that the majority of public people have disrespected me and haven’t bothered to apologise to me in private.

“It’s easy to talk about others in this country.”

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