Spain announced that it would consider corona the flu. No lockdowns more and no more mass testing and registration of infections. Can the Netherlands safely de lockdown cancel and choose the same path?
The disturbing reports about the enormous contagiousness of omikron always sounded with that glimmer of hope: this variant is a huge home, but could also be our ticket out of the pandemic. Because if omikron is much more contagious than the previous variant delta, but at the same time leads to serious illness in far fewer cases, then a point will be reached at which the outbreak can be controlled and extreme measures are no longer necessary to maintain the health care system.
The Spanish Government dare to take that course to choose. She will approach corona as flu, in other words: be vigilant, protect the vulnerable, but no longer see every infection as a potential danger and therefore no longer test and register positive cases on a massive scale. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez emphasizes that his government wants to introduce this in consultation with other Member States of the European Union and that it will be done step by step.
The United Kingdom has previously opted for a slightly less far-reaching approach in which living with the virus is central. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s government did not want lockdowns more and had sufficient confidence in vaccination coverage including boosters to cope with omikron without new restrictions.
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