Denmark becomes latest European country to lift almost all Covid curbs

Denmark said it would lift almost all Covid-19 restrictions and stop designating it a “societally critical” disease on Wednesday in the latest sign that western European countries are easing or even eradicating strict measures brought in to combat the Omicron coronavirus variant.

Magnus Heunicke, Denmark’s health minister, wrote to parliament on Wednesday saying that he would remove all Covid-19 restrictions on February 1, except for testing on arrival from abroad.

Just as the Danish government did in September, when it lifted all restrictions, it will also stop calling Covid-19 a “societally critical disease”, meaning that it will no longer have the legal basis to introduce wide-ranging curbs.

“Tonight we can begin to lower our shoulders and find our smiles again,” said Mette Frederiksen, Danish prime minister, on Wednesday evening. “The pandemic is still here, but with what we know now, we can dare to believe we are through the critical phase.”

Denmark is the latest European country in recent days to announce it is dropping most or nearly all measures as it follows in the footsteps of the UK, Ireland and the Netherlands even as infection rates remain at, or close to, record highs across the continent.

Denmark still has one of the highest number of Covid-19 cases per capita in the world, currently more than 10 times its previous peak as Omicron causes tens of thousands of daily infections. But the number of patients in intensive care continues to fall and, even with Omicron, never hit the peaks reached from April 2020 and January 2021.

Ireland, which introduced an unpopular 8pm hospitality curfew just before Christmas as Omicron raged, last Saturday scrapped almost all pandemic restrictions, including pub opening hours and limits on social gatherings.

In the Netherlands, authorities have decided to relax some restrictions as of Wednesday, even as the number of infections continues to rise.

“We are taking a very big step,” prime minister Mark Rutte told reporters on Tuesday, while adding that the government will reassess the measures in three weeks.

European countries reacted quickly with varying measures of strictness to the emergence of Omicron in December, but have been relieved in the past few weeks that a much-feared rise in intensive care patients has not materialised.

Coronavirus infections in the UK have fallen for the second week in a row, according to the country’s Office for National Statistics. Almost 3m people were infected with Covid-19 in the week ending January 22, the ONS infection survey estimated, down from 3.4m recorded a week earlier.

From Thursday, England will drop its mask mandate in shops and on public transport, alongside scrapping vaccine passports. Scotland plans to relax its work from home guidance from January 31 after reopening nightclubs and ending capacity limits on events earlier this week.

However, health leaders warned the country’s health service was still under pressure. Saffron Cordery, deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents hospital and community health services, said it was “important to recognise that this Covid surge isn’t over, and that the NHS is still operating under extremely difficult circumstances”.

Sweden, Norway and Finland all announced this week that they were likely to ease restrictions in the coming days and weeks.

“We can tolerate more cases now, so then it is natural to look at easing restrictions, and that is what we are doing . . . This means we can live with a higher infection rate in society without the health system blowing up,” Ingvild Kjerkol, Norway’s health minister, told TV2.

Sanna Marin, Finnish prime minister, said that the opening up of “low-risk” cultural and sporting events and longer hours for restaurants could be on a “shorter timetable than expected”.

Sweden said on Wednesday that it would extend its existing restrictions for 14 days but expected, on the current trajectory, to lift most of them on February 9.