Late-night partying at clubs. Elbow-to-elbow seating in movie theaters. Going without masks in public, especially in Europe and North America: Step by step, many countries are easing their COVID-19 restrictions amid hopes that the wave of the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2 might have passed its peak.
The early moves to relax precautions, based on declining or flattening COVID-19 case counts in the past few days, represent what could be another turning point in a nearly two-year pandemic that has been full of them.
The extraordinarily contagious Omicron variant has fueled more cases worldwide over the past 10 weeks — 90 million — than were seen during all of 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic’s first full year.
Illustration: Yusha
However, the WHO last month said that some countries can consider carefully relaxing the rules if they have high immunity rates, their healthcare systems are strong and the epidemiological trends are going in the right direction.
New cases worldwide for the week starting on Jan. 24 were similar to the level of the previous week, although the number of new deaths increased 9 percent to more than 59,000, reflecting the usual lag between infection and death, the UN health agency said.
The most pronounced pullbacks in restrictions are in Europe, for many months the world’s epicenter of the pandemic, as well as in South Africa — where Omicron was first announced publicly — and the US.
In the UK and the US, as in South Africa before them, COVID-19 cases skyrocketed at first, but are coming down rapidly.
In the US, local leaders have served up a hodgepodge of responses. The Denver City Government is ending requirements for proof of COVID-19 vaccination and mask rules for businesses and public spaces, while keeping them for schools and public transportation.
The New York governor is planning to review whether to keep the state’s mask mandate, despite cases and hospitalizations having plummeted in the early Omicron hot spot. New York City is averaging 4,200 cases a day, compared with 41,000 during the first week of last month.
The US as a whole is on a similar trajectory, with infections plunging from an average of more than 800,000 a day in the middle of last month to 430,000 at the end of the month.
The UK, France, Ireland, the Netherlands and several Nordic countries have taken steps to end or loosen their restrictions. In some places, such as Norway and Denmark, the easing comes even though case counts are still hovering near their highs. Some governments are essentially betting that the pandemic is ebbing.
“Rest assured that the worst days are behind us,” Turkish Minister of Health Fahrettin Koca said, despite Turkey’s number of daily infections topping 100,000 on Tuesday, the highest on record in the country of more than 80 million.
Last month, the UK ended almost all domestic restrictions. Masks are not required in public, vaccine passes are no longer needed to get into public venues and a work-from-home order has been lifted. One lingering condition: Those who test positive still have to isolate.
On Tuesday, Norway lifted its ban on serving alcohol after 11pm and a cap on private gatherings of no more than 10 people. People can sit elbow-to-elbow again at events with fixed seating, and sports events can take place as they did before the pandemic.
“Now it’s time for us to take back our everyday life,” Norwegian Minister of Health Ingvild Kjerkol said. “Tonight, we scrap most measures so we can be closer to living a normal life.”
In the capital of Denmark, which on Tuesday took the lead among EU members by scrapping most restrictions, many people were still wearing masks on the streets and in stores a day later.
“I still wear a mask because I want to protect myself and others whose health is not so good, or who have health issues,” Kjeld Rasmussen, 86, said in Copenhagen. “I have several things [health conditions] and so for me, it is also a good way to say to others: ‘Keep your distance.’”
More than 370 million cases and more than 5.6 million deaths linked to COVID-19 have been reported worldwide.
The loosening of Omicron’s grip in many places has given rise to hope that the outbreak is about to enter a new phase in which the virus would become, like the flu, a persistent, but generally manageable threat that people can live with.
Switzerland on Wednesday scrapped work-at-home and quarantine requirements, and announced plans for an easing of other restrictions in the coming weeks, saying: “Despite record-high infection figures, hospitals have not been overburdened and the occupancy of intensive care units has fallen further.”
“There are increasing signs that the acute crisis will soon be over and the endemic phase could begin,” the Swiss government said.
While Omicron has proved less likely to cause severe illness than the Delta variant, experts are warning people against underestimating it or letting their guard down against the possibility of new, more dangerous mutant varieties.
“We are concerned that a narrative has taken hold in some countries that because of vaccines — and because of Omicron’s high transmissibility and lower severity — preventing transmission is no longer possible and no longer necessary,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
WHO Health Emergencies Program executive director Michael Ryan warned that political pressure could lead some countries to open back up too soon, saying that it would “result in unnecessary transmission, unnecessary severe disease and unnecessary death.”
As throughout the pandemic, many countries are going their own way.
Italy has tightened its health pass requirements during the Omicron surge. As of Monday last week, it began requiring at least a negative test report from within the previous 48 hours to enter banks and post offices, and anyone aged 50 or older who has not been vaccinated risks a fine of 100 euros (US$113).
Austria, which was the first European country to impose a vaccine mandate, is planning to loosen COVID-19 restrictions this month and take such steps as letting restaurants stay open later.
Greece has ordered fines for people aged 60 or older who refuse to get vaccinated.
In Germany, where infections are still setting daily records, curbs on private gatherings and requirements for people to show proof of vaccination or recovery to enter nonessential stores remain in place.
“I think that the moment we have the feeling that we can loosen responsibly, federal and state governments will take that step,” German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said late last month. “But at the moment, it is still a bit premature.”
Other continents are being even more cautious. Some of the world’s highest vaccination rates are in Asia, and its leaders are holding to stricter lockdown measures or even tightening them for now.
The Pacific nation of Tonga went into lockdown on Wednesday after discovering infections in two port workers helping to distribute aid following a volcanic eruption and tsunami. The country had been virus-free.
New Zealand is to ease its strict border controls, freeing vaccinated New Zealanders from having to stay in quarantine hotels run by the military.
However, the unvaccinated must still quarantine, and most foreigners would still have to wait until October to visit quarantine-free.
Just days ahead of the Beijing Winter Olympics, China was sticking to its “zero COVID-19” policy. It imposes strict lockdowns and quarantines quickly when any cases are detected, mandates masks on public transportation and requires people to show “green” status on a health app to enter most restaurants and stores.
South Africa late last month announced that it has exited the fourth wave of the pandemic, saying that scientific studies showed immunity has hit 60 to 80 percent. Masks are still mandatory, but a curfew has been lifted and schools are required to fully — not just partially — open for the first time since March 2020.
Public Health Association of South Africa secretary Atiya Mosam said that such steps are a “practical move toward acknowledging that COVID-19 is here to stay, even though we might have a milder strain.”
“We are acknowledging how transmission occurs, while basically balancing people’s need to live their lives,” Mosam said.
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