Europe is Done with Covid-19 Restrictions

Many European countries have announced plans to lift all Covid-19 related restrictions. Is it too soon to march towards normality?

• The Omicron wave has passed its peak in many European countries. Higher vaccination rates paired with mild Omicron cases have ensured hospitals weren’t overwhelmed as with Delta wave.
• Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, France, UK have lifted all Covid restrictions. Germany, Austria are planning to lift them despite case numbers in Germany being upwards of 100,000.
• Due to a shortage of health workers and doctors in Germany, things like contact tracing and PCR tests for contact persons have taken a backseat according to health experts.
• WHO director-general Tedros Ghebreyesus isn’t too pleased. At a press event at the start of the month, he called it premature for any country to either surrender or declare victory over Covid-19.
• While debates are on over restrictions-easing, experts agree that the pandemic is entering the endemic phase. WHO’s Europe chief has said Europe has an opportunity to control the transmission.
• Endemic is not an end of the pandemic but that Covid19 will be under control by medications and vaccines. It also means we have to learn to live with Covid19 as we do with malaria or the flu.