STOCKHOLM (LifeSiteNews) — The Swedish government announced Thursday that it will be lifting all COVID restrictions by February 9.
“It’s time to open up Sweden,” said Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson at a press conference.
Starting Wednesday, there will no longer be any limitations on how many people can gather at restaurants, sports stadiums, and other venues, according to Swedish minister of health and social affairs Lena Hallengren.
In addition, Swedes will no longer be required to work from home, and travel restrictions between Sweden and other Nordic countries will be relaxed. Vaccine passport requirements, mask mandates on public transports, and social distancing will also be scrapped.
Throughout 2020 and 2021, Sweden has been the source of heated debate for its management of COVID-19. It was one of very few countries which decided against going into lockdown. The government did not shut down schools or the economy, and did not remotely restrict individual freedoms to the degree seen in the United States and much of Europe.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, the Nordic country of some 10.3 million people has logged a total of more than 2.2 million confirmed cases of COVID, and 16,000 deaths.
The current situation in hospitals has been described as manageable by the Swedish government and has been cited as a reason for lifting the restrictions, in addition to the country’s high rate of vaccination at 73%.
In announcing the lifting of its COVID restrictions, Sweden is now aligning itself with Denmark, which ended them on Tuesday, declaring that COVID was “no longer a dangerous disease” for society.
Two other neighboring Nordic countries, Norway and Finland, have also announced the lifting of some of their COVID restrictions recently, as have a number of countries throughout Europe, including Ireland, Switzerland, France, and the U.K.
While the relaxing or lifting of COVID restrictions in many places will come as good news for the millions of people throughout the world who have been protesting en masse against restrictions to their freedoms, leaders have suggested that the measures might come back in the future, or not be lifted at all, depending on the evolution of the pandemic and the appearance of potential new variants.
In France, health minister Olivier Véran said the vaccine passport currently in place will only be scrapped if there is “no new variant circulating” at the time.
In Sweden, Prime Minister Magdalena Anderson has said that “the pandemic is not over but has entered a totally new phase.”
Moreover, in virtually every country where restrictions are being relaxed or lifted, the decision is not only attributed to the herd immunity generated by the fast-spreading and mild omicron variant, but above all to the alleged efficacy of the COVID-19 “vaccines” and booster shots.
Despite the current relaxing of measures, leaders everywhere are still encouraging, if not legally obliging, people to get vaccinated with the mRNA gene therapy which has been associated with thousands of deaths and millions of adverse events worldwide.
Unvaccinated people are also still being blamed for the fact that the pandemic is still ongoing, despite evidence showing that vaccinated people now account for a majority of cases and hospitalizations in many places.