Is Omicron the beginning of the end-emic? Some countries ease COVID restrictions even as infections surge

The Omicron variant is tearing through country after country, leading to the highest infection rates yet seen in the pandemic. Global COVID infections hit a daily record of more than 1.4 million confirmed cases on Monday.

Many governments have responded by reimposing tighter social distancing restrictions and even going back into lockdown, as the Netherlands did two weeks ago. But some countries have decided that the best response to Omicron is, well, a shrug. These places are choosing to implement looser protocols than in previous COVID-19 waves.

Here are how countries that...