The World Health Organization has offered Europe hope of a "long period of tranquility" and even "enduring peace" in the war on coronavirus, with a growing list of nations lifting almost all Covid curbs.
WHO Europe director Hans Kluge spoke of "a ceasefire that could bring us enduring peace", with high vaccination rates, the milder Omicron variant and the end of winter in sight. "This context leaves us with the possibility for a long period of tranquility," he told reporters.
This was "not to say that (the pandemic) is now all over", but "there is a singular opportunity to take control of the transmission. "Even with a more virulent variant (than Omicron) it is possible to respond to new variants that will inevitably emerge - without re-installing the kind of disruptive measures we needed before." He cautioned that the optimistic scenario required countries to pursue vaccination campaigns and surveillance to detect new variants.
Sweden joined the move towards scrapping most coronavirus restrictions, setting 9 February as the date with the pandemic entering a "whole new phase".