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It’s a big day for reopening in Austria, where catering, hotels, sport and leisure and culture are all resuming business under some restrictions. Restaurants, cinemas and theatres have been shut for almost seven months and can now admit customers who have a Green Pass - either digital or on paper - showing a negative test, vaccinations or recovery from Covid. One Vienna restaurant was so eager to restart, its doors reopened on the dot of 05:00 (04:00 UK time), the moment the lockdown ended.

France has begun its second stage of reopening today, with bars and restaurants serving outdoors at 50% capacity, and places of culture and all shops back in business. It’s great news for Frédéric Jeanjean, head of the hotel trade and industry union in the southern Bouches-du-Rhône region, “because it’s our lives, a professional commitment for your entire life”. Cinemas and theatres can reopen to 35% capacity and museums too. The next stage is on 9 June before full reopening on 30 June.

One of Belgium’s top Covid experts, Marc Van Ranst, has been taken to safety with his family as police hunt a heavily armed man who’s threatened him in the past. The man on the run is a professional soldier known to be a far-right extremist, who is described as armed with a rocket launcher, a machine gun and an ordinary pistol.

Germany’s seven-day Covid incidence rate has fallen to 72.8 cases per 100,000 people. Another 11,040 infections have been reported in the past 24 hours.

Italy’s overnight curfew has been put back an hour to 23:00, after a decree was signed by President Sergio Mattarella. And several rules in the Netherlands are being relaxed too: gyms, amusement parks and zoos can open their doors again, while bars and restaurants can serve outdoors for another two hours, until 20:00.