Corona virus: Many countries are abolishing corona restrictions

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On February 12th, the 3G rule ended in Mallorca - also on this beach in Arenal

Photo: Clara Margais / dpa

From Latvia to Israel to South Africa: Numerous countries and regions have relaxed or completely abolished their corona restrictions.

The easing is justified with the flattening omicron wave and in most cases with high vaccination rates.

In many countries, travelers and tourists from abroad benefit - even those who have not been vaccinated.

For the first time since the pandemic began,

has allowed unvaccinated tourists to enter the country without a special permit.

Since last Tuesday, foreigners have only had to take two PCR tests - one before departure and one after entry.

So far, entry for tourists was only possible with full vaccination.

The five-day quarantine after entry is also eliminated.

Omicron infection numbers have been falling in Israel since January.

On Tuesday, the Ministry of Health reported 8,372 new cases for the previous day.

Around 64 percent of the 9.4 million citizens are currently considered to be fully vaccinated.

Mallorca

has lifted most of the corona restrictions that are still in force.

As in all of Spain, only the applicable mask requirement indoors and the smoking ban in the outdoor areas of restaurants remain in place.

A spokesman for the regional government justified the lifting of the precautionary measures with the positive development in the number of infections and the high vaccination rate in the Balearic Islands.

Numerous restrictions will be abolished, including restrictions on the number of visitors, for example in gastronomy, in nightlife, at cultural, sports and other events as well as in retirement homes.

Many of the restrictions to contain the pandemic had been relaxed in the Balearic Islands in recent weeks.

The number of new infections has been falling for weeks, most recently at 170 after this value was more than 1400 a month ago.

While a hard lockdown is becoming more and more likely in Hong Kong given the sharp rise in the number of infections and opponents of compulsory vaccination are demonstrating against the strict corona rules in New Zealand, extensive easing has already been announced or implemented elsewhere in the past few days: including Great Britain, Italy, France and Iceland.

Numerous rules were abolished in Latvia

last Tuesday, and the health emergency imposed in October 2021 was ended.

Since March 1, a so-called green passport for vaccinated or recovered people has no longer had to be presented in retail stores in the Baltic EU country.

The previous restrictions on opening hours will also be lifted, and entertainment and leisure facilities will be able to welcome customers again.

There, as well as in the gastronomic sector, at events and for several professional fields, the 2G rule will continue to apply until April 1st.

The mask requirement, distance rules and hygiene regulations also remain valid.

In the US

has

US President Joe Biden prepared the people of the country for a future in which the pandemic will no longer determine their entire everyday life.

“For more than two years, Covid has impacted every decision in our lives and in the life of this nation.

And I know you're tired, frustrated and exhausted," Biden said during his State of the Union address on Tuesday.

But thanks to people's perseverance, progress is now being made.

“It's about time Americans got back to work and repopulated our great inner cities.

People who work from home can feel safe and return to the office,” Biden said.

He does not want to accept living with the virus.

Just as other diseases have been fought, Covid-19 should also be fought.

Vaccination is particularly important for this.

The omicron wave hit the United States with full force in December, where more than 950,000 people have died in connection with a corona infection since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the meantime, the number of cases has fallen massively.

In Germany, too,

where the number of infections has been falling for a long time, the restrictions are being relaxed.

The Robert Koch Institute (RKI) removes all countries from its list of high-risk areas - which will make it easier for people returning to Germany to enter Germany.

As of Thursday, the RKI writes on its website, no country will be declared a high-risk area.

»Not an infection-free summer«

"With the widespread occurrence of the omicron variant, it is shown that the ability of this variant to cause a threatening disease is less severe compared to the previously dominant variants," explained the RKI.

For this reason, only regions where more dangerous variants are widespread would become high-risk areas.

Most recently, 62 countries and regions were still considered high-risk areas, including most of Germany's neighboring countries.

They will all be taken off the list on Thursday.

The virologist Christian Drosten warns that despite the falling number of infections in the coming summer, it is possible to get infected with Omicron.

On the one hand, the current vaccination progress is not sufficient, on the other hand, the infection activity by omicron is still high, said the scientist from the Berlin Charité on Tuesday in the podcast “Coronavirus Update” on NDR-Info.

"That's why I'm assuming there won't be an infection-free summer."

Drosten pointed out that in South Africa, for example, the omicron wave rose sharply in midsummer.

However, he does not expect an "untamed" wave in the summer.

Accordingly, Drosten considers it advisable to continue wearing masks indoors in summer too.

In particular, wearing FFP2 masks indoors is “the most efficient measure of all” in the long term.

He clearly called for vaccination or boosters.

With a view to temperatures falling again over the course of the year, Drosten expressed the assessment that there would be another winter wave.

He hopes that this will not be accompanied by a serious burden of illness in the population, but the risk of large-scale work absences will continue to exist.

“The pandemic will not only be over when the severity of the disease has been cut off by vaccination, but also when this high level of transmissibility has ended as a result of certain modifications in the population,” he warned.

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