In Britain and Denmark most coronavirus restrictions have been lifted, including mask mandates; Austria and the Netherlands have eased lockdown measures despite surges in cases, and in late January, the European Union recommended that vaccinated residents should not be required to undergo testing or quarantine when traveling between the 27 member states.
In the United States, major travel industry groups have called on the federal government to eliminate the testing requirement for U.S.-bound vaccinated travelers, saying that the measures fail to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.
The call to loosen pandemic restrictions and the actual relaxation of measures comes as health experts across the world have determined that, while the now-dominant omicron variant is highly contagious, it is causing lower rates of severe disease, especially among people vaccinated and boosted. This has led to a growing chorus of voices — from the prime minister of Denmark to President Joe Biden’s former pandemic advisers — calling for a change in approach to the virus, to accept it as a part of everyday life to be managed, not a deadly scourge requiring lockdowns and stringent preventive measures.
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