‘Time to Open Up’ Sweden Scraps Vax Passes, Becoming the Latest European Nation to Abandon Lockdown

Sweden's Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson looks on during her visit at the European Comm
JOHANNA GERON/POOL/AFP via Getty Images
Peter Caddle

Sweden’s Prime Minister has announced that the Nordic nation will be scrapping the internal use of vaccine passes, becoming the latest European nation to escape lockdown.

Sweden is to become the latest European state to escape lockdown, after the Nordic nation’s Prime Minister announced that vaccine passes, along with a host of other restrictions, will be dumped next week.

Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson attributed the lifting to a greater understanding of the Omicron variant of the Chinese Coronavirus, as well as the country’s high vaccination rates.

According to a report by Sveriges Television, the internal system of vaccine certificates is due to be scrapped on February 9, along with restrictions capping the attendance of certain events.

Also to be scrapped is the government recommendation to limit contacts, while a return to in-person work is also being prepared, though this will occur gradually according to officials.

During a press conference on the loosening of measures, Andersson hailed a new phase of the COVID pandemic attributed in part to the Omicron variant.

“There are now several international studies that it causes milder disease, she says,” the Prime Minister said.

“It’s time to open up Sweden,” Politico meanwhile reports the PM as saying. “The pandemic isn’t over, but it is moving into a new phase.”

Some measures however will remain in place within the country, including the recommendation to stay at home should one develop symptoms of the disease.

So-called “special recommendations” will also be maintained for the unjabbed, with Sveriges Television saying that those without the vaccine are to still be advised to avoid congestion and large crowds.

However, Sweden’s Public Health Agency has also announced that it believes COVID-19 should no longer be listed as a socially dangerous disease, with the groups requesting a decision on the matter be made by parliament to allow this change to come into effect.

Sweden is the latest of a number of European countries to dramatically ease lockdown measures.

England was the first mover in this recent trend, scrapping mask mandates entirely early last month, along with its internal use of COVID passes.

This was promptly followed by significant restriction easings in Ireland, the Netherlands, and Denmark.

Denmark in particular took the most drastic action, abolishing all domestic COVID measures in their entirety on February 1, with the nation’s PM telling residents that they could “smile again”.

What’s more, some nations who have previously been very resistant to easing measures appear like they may be having a change of heart.

Austria has ended its “Corona Apartheid” lockdown of unvaccinated individuals, despite previously promising that such a lockdown would continue in perpetuity for the unjabbed.

Restrictions on those who have not taken the vaccine however still remain in place as the country awaits the implementation of mandatory vaccination.

Meanwhile, France’s Minister of Health, Olivier Véran, has said that France’s ever-tightening vaccine pass regulations may be abandoned much sooner than expected.

“The worst is behind us,” Le Monde reports Véran as saying. “The vaccination pass will have an end, and given the current epidemic dynamics, it is likely that this end well before July.”

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