Several countries in Europe where COVID-19 cases are rising should have taken a more measured approach to lifting pandemic restrictions, Dr. Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, said on Tuesday.
Britain, Germany, France, and Italy are among the 18 European countries where cases are increasing, thanks to the Omicron subvariant BA.2, which is highly transmissible. In those countries, the governments lifted restrictions "brutally, from too much to too few," Kluge said. In England, for example, masks are not legally required in most public areas, but are still "strongly encouraged" on trains, buses, and subways.
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