Coronavirus : People are returning to work in Spain

As Spain has relaxed its lockdown, thousands of workers have gone back to work in capital Madrid since yesterday.

Around 300,00 workers whose work cannot be performed while staying back home have returned to work after the country has shifted to partial lockdown. But like before, restaurants, bars, shopping malls and other businesses regarding "non essential" will continue to follow lockdown restrictions, reports CNN.

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has cautioned that the nation's return to normal life will be "progressive," stressing that the resumption of normal activity will happen in phases and will be accompanied by hygiene measures and efforts to monitor new cases and prevent further contagion.

"We can't even know what kind of normality we're returning to," he said last week.

The government announced handing out 10 million protective masks at public transports emphasizing all kinds of protective measures even after lockdown.

Spain has been one of the epicenters of coronavirus pandemic, with more than 169,000 confirmed cases so far -- the highest in Europe, and second only to the US, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.

The country has now recorded a total of more than 17,400 deaths. On Monday, it recorded the second-lowest daily rise in deaths for three weeks, 517 fatalities in the past 24 hours.