The light at the end of the tunnel is glowing brighter as some countries take the first steps towards a return to normality following the Covid-19 lockdown.

Schools are opening their gates to children who have had to depend on home education during the emergency while mothballed public transport systems are creaking back into action.

Face masks are becoming the new normal as people step out into the sunlight to resume activities they once took for granted before the pandemic.

Virus Outbreak France
A school child uses an disinfectant solution as she arrives at her school in Saint Jean de Luz, southwestern France (Bob Edme/AP)
Virus Outbreak New Zealand New Normal
A man has his beard trimmed at a barber in Christchurch, New Zealand (Mark Baker/AP)
Virus Outbreak France Dentists Reopening
Dentist Sabrine Jendoubi, left, and her dental assistant Margot Daussat inspect the teeth of patient Veronique Guillot as business resumes (Michel Euler/AP)
Virus Outbreak Italy Reopening
A young hairdresser wears a face mask and gloves in Italy’s German-speaking majority region of South Tyrol, known as Alto Adige in Italian, which is easing lockdown quicker than the rest of the country (Matthias Schrader/AP)
Virus Outbreak China
A worker removes her face mask as employees practice social distancing while they eat lunch at a staff cafeteria in a semiconductor production facility for Renesas Electronics during a government organised tour for journalists in Beijing (Mark Schiefelbein/AP)
Virus Outbreak New Zealand New Normal
Passengers wait to board their flight at Christchurch Airport in New Zealand where only some seats are marked as free to sit on to encourage social distancing (Mark Baker/AP)
Virus Outbreak Panama
Fishermen return from inspecting and repairing large boats before leaving the Sea Food Market port to fish in Panama City after the government partially lifted lockdown (Arnulfo Franco/AP)
Virus Outbreak France
Children back in the classroom in Strasbourg, France (Jean-Francois Badias/AP)
Virus Outbreak India
Migrant labourers from Punjab state squat on a railway station platform as they wait for medical tests after arriving in their home town Fatehpur (Rajesh Kumar Singh/AP)
Virus Outbreak Japan Daily Life
People wearing face masks to protect against the spread of coronavirus keep social distancing as they wait to enter a KFC restaurant in Yokohama near Tokyo, Japan (Koji Sasahara/AP)
Virus Outbreak Lebanon
A couple wears masks and gloves, as they shop at a supermarket as people begin to stock up on provisions, in Beirut, Lebanon, before lockdown was imposed (Bilal Hussein/AP)
Virus Outbreak Italy Reopening
A man sprays disinfectant as he sanitises Santa Maria in Trastevere Basilica in Rome with masses expected to resume on May 18 (Alessandra Tarantino/AP)
Virus Outbreak Turkey
Children were allowed out to play in Turkey on Wednesday (Burhan Ozbilici/AP)
Virus Outbreak South Africa
People wearing face masks to protect against coronavirus, queue to walk through disinfecting spray booth before doing shopping at Alexandra township in Johannesburg, South Africa (Themba Hadebe/AP)