Carl Bildt, former Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Sweden, provides his perspective:

Will countries like Italy and Spain now, and others in Europe now, gradually open up?

It's got to be very, very gradual. And it's going to be different in different European countries, although there's an attempt to sort of coordinate somewhat from the European Union point of view. What you've seen in Italy, to take the worst hit country, is opening up a couple of shops, some bookstores and some shops for children's clothes, in addition to pharmacies and food stores. But I think most restrictions will be fairly firmly in place in most of Europe for weeks to come.