Most of the European countries have lifted almost all the COVID restrictions and plans to ease restrictive measures. The WHO has prepared a set of guidelines with six criteria.
However, according to the WHO guidelines, countries are requesting to consider easing measures after the number of infections declines and its health system can cope with the virus cases and the possible outbreak. They further asked to guarantee their capability for surveillance and contact tracing.
Denmark is the latest EU nation to announce dropping most of the measure as it follows in the footsteps of the UK, Ireland, and the Netherlands. Meanwhile, the rate of infection remains at a record high across the continent.
After the emergence of Omicron in December, the European Union reacted rapidly with varying levels of strictness. However, they are now relieved that an increase in intensive care patients has not materialized.
According to the Office for National Statistics, Coronavirus infections decreased for the second consecutive week. Covid-19-infected people fell from 3.4m to around 3 million in the week ending January 22, as measured by the ONS infection survey.
WHO senior advisor Natasha Azzopardi Muscat said, “It is very clear that this transition is not going back to normal but moving forward into a new normal”.
