London, Europe Brief News – As most of the European countries have lifted COVID-19 restrictions, many expected that this is the end of COVID-19.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 18 European countries have completely or nearly lifted all virus measures.
Countries have become “more accustomed to living with this virus,” said Professor David Heymann, an epidemiologist at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and governments are in turn letting people do “their own risk assessment” rather than imposing restrictions on them.
“I wouldn’t call it that at the moment,” said Dr Catherine Smallwood, WHO’s COVID-19 incident manager.
“Certainly, we’re in a phase of the pandemic where we might try and achieve moving away from the acute emergency that the pandemic has brought,” she said. But it will be a long time before we can “pretend that the virus isn’t there anymore”.
The goal for this year would be to exit that “emergency” phase. But it will depend on how it evolves around the world, she added.
There are still rising cases and deaths in several Asian countries, for instance, where there is lower population immunity than in Europe. Cases and deaths are at a two-year high in China.
Cases were overall decreasing in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) in the first week of March, according to the European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the public health body’s last surveillance report from 10 March, mortality was still increasing in 10 countries. Around 83% of people in the EU and EEA are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
“The resurgence will depend on the population immunity in the country, the vaccination coverage and the history of previous illness,” said Prof Heymann.
Heymann earlier said that many people could have already had COVID-19 without symptoms.
UK Removes All Travel Rules
The UK authorities earlier declared the decision to remove all remaining Covid travel measures this Friday.
Currently, everyone travelling to the UK must complete a passenger locator form before they arrive.
Travellers who did not receive full vaccination have to take Covid test before departure and book for PCR test.
UK Transport Minister Grant Shapps confirmed in a tweet that these rules will end at 04:00 on Friday.
His announcement means that vaccinated passengers will no longer have to take Covid tests. The passenger locator form will no longer be necessary either.
People planning an overseas trip will still need to be aware of other countries’ entry rules.
