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Even as coronavirus deaths mount across Europe and New York, the U.S. and other countries are starting to contemplate an exit strategy and thinking about a staggered and carefully calibrated
easing of the restrictions designed to curb the scourge. "To end the confinement, we're not going to go from black to white; we're going to go from black to gray," top
French epidemiologist Jean-Francois Delfraissy said in a radio interview. At the same time, politicians and health officials warn that the crisis is far from over despite signs of progress,
and a catastrophic second wave could hit if countries let down their guard too soon. Deaths, hospitalizations and new infections are leveling off in places like Italy and Spain, and even New
York has seen encouraging signs amid the gloom. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spent a second night in intensive care but was improving and sitting up in bed, authorities said. Saudi
Arabian officials announced that the Saudi-led coalition fighting Shiite rebels in Yemen will begin a cease-fire starting Thursday. They said the two-week truce was in response to U.N. calls
to halt hostilities around the world amid the epidemic. In China, the lockdown of Wuhan, the industrial city of 11 million where the global pandemic began, was lifted after 76 days,
allowing people to come and go. Wuhan residents will have to use a smartphone app showing that they are healthy and have not been in recent contact with anyone confirmed to have the virus.
Schools remain closed, people are still checked for fever when they enter buildings and masks are strongly encouraged. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is considering
changing self-isolation guidelines to make it easier for those exposed to someone with the virus to return to work if they have no symptoms. Under the proposal, aimed at workers in critical
fields, such people would be allowed back on the job if they take their temperature twice a day and wear a mask, said a person familiar with the draft but was not authorized to discuss it
and spoke on condition of anonymity. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious-diseases expert, said the Trump administration is working on plans to eventually reopen the country
amid "glimmers of hope" that social distancing is working to stop the spread.