COVID-19: Sweden removes most restrictions, Russia reports record daily deaths
Sweden removed most of its remaining COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday, despite rising case numbers.
Restrictions on places of hospitality, including the size of the party and the distance between the parties, as well as restrictions on the number of participants at gatherings and events, whether public or private, are scrapped.
The health authority’s advice on work from home is also removed.
Sweden has been an outlier in aspects of its management of the disease and has avoided harsh shutdowns throughout the pandemic.
Further south, Portugal announced that it would phase out its military-led vaccine group after reaching its goal of completely inoculating 85% of the population.
Along with the increasing number of jabs, the degree of infection and hospitalizations due to the coronavirus have dropped to a minimum in almost 18 months.
Portugal could release most of its remaining pandemic restrictions next month.
Meanwhile, coronavirus-confirmed deaths have just broken another record in Russia with 857 new deaths reported on Wednesday.
Few restrictions exist in the country, which had a six-week lockdown this spring. Russia’s vaccination rate is still low with only 28% of its 144.4 million people now fully vaccinated.