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Nonetheless, bodies like the RKI are cautious about forecasting how Germany’s epidemic will progress, telling CNBC that Germany “is still at the beginning of its epidemic.” Meanwhile, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday that the data was encouraging, but she urged the German public to maintain social distancing and hygiene measures.

“It is true that the latest number (of new cases) from the Robert Koch Institute (for infectious diseases), which remain high, give reason for a very cautious hope,” Merkel said, Reuters reported.

She added that the government was now thinking “about how we can simultaneously achieve two things: securing health protection for all, and also starting a process so that public life returns step by step.”

Germany, Italy and Spain have all extended lockdown measures to April 19, April 12 and April 25, respectively. The U.K. said it would review its lockdown after April 12 (when it’s estimated the virus could peak in the country). 

Widespread testing is one way to exit lockdown measures gradually, but testing regimes have varied widely in Europe. Germany, which is conducting widespread testing, and the U.K., which has not, have been considering some kind of “immunity passport” that would allow individuals who have been exposed to the virus and are now immune to it, to return to work and their normal daily routines.

Weighing up public and economic health is at the forefront of leaders’ minds. Get the timing of lifting restrictions wrong and a wave of new coronavirus cases could flood already severely pressured healthcare services in Europe. Leave it too long, and Europe’s economy will enter an even more prolonged downturn. It’s already estimated it could take two years for the region to return to late-2019 gross domestic product levels.

Still, investors are hopeful; European markets rose sharply Monday as they reacted to the slowing down in the rate of new coronavirus infections in the region.

UBS strategists led by Mark Haefele, chief investment officer global wealth management, said in a daily report Monday that market performance in the region, in the near term, “depends on how quickly economic activity can normalize following measures to contain the virus; and 2) the extent to which policy responses can limit bankruptcies and job losses.”

“We continue to closely monitor data on the spread of the virus and the proposed length of lockdowns,” he said.

“We think the data is still broadly consistent with our central scenario in which new cases reach a first peak in Europe by early April and in the U.S. by mid-April, with the most severe restrictions to limit the spread lifted by mid-May.”