Citing a lack of risk from COVID-19, Denmark announced that they were suspending their national COVID vaccine program, becoming the first EU country to do so.

Director of the Department of Infectious Diseases Bolette Søborg said Denmark was in a “good position” regarding low cases and hospitalizations.

“Therefore, we are winding down the mass vaccination program against Covid-19,” said Søborg.

As of May 15, the government won’t issue invitations to get vaccinated. However, they add that they plan to reopen the program in the Fall, much as they do with the common flu.

“We plan to reopen the vaccination programme in the autumn. This will be preceded by a thorough professional assessment of who and when to vaccinate and with which vaccines,” said Søborg.

Denmark was also one of the first EU nations to end all restrictions earlier in February, with experts claiming that there appeared to be no efficacy to lockdowns and mandates when it came to stopping the spread of COVID and referred to the virus as an epidemic rather than a pandemic.

According to Director of Infection Preparedness Tyra Grove Krause, “With omicron, it is impossible to stop the spread of infection, even with severe restrictions,” adding that there was nothing to do but let COVID “run through the population” and that it is roughly as dangerous as the common cold.

Many Danes were, of course, elated to hear that they’d no longer have their freedoms restricted.

“It’s fantastic, and I’m happy that I can go out and be young again, that we can go out and do all the things we used to do,” student Stine Thrane Andreasson told Sweden’s Sydsvenskan newspaper. “I didn’t think that restrictions were going to be taken away so soon.”

However, he noted the psychological damage that restrictions have brought, saying that it feels like he’s doing “something illegal” when going to shops without a mask.