Danish health officials believe the virus to be sufficiently under control.

In most major countries around the world, COVID-19 vaccination is still compulsory. Case numbers, while lower than the pandemic’s peak, are still fluctuating, prompting most governments to maintain their existing stances on vaccination and general pandemic safety. However, one country has decided the situation has normalized enough to end compulsory vaccination.

Denmark announced this week that they will be officially ending their government COVID vaccination program, as COVID case numbers there have reached what they believe to be manageable levels.

“Spring has arrived, vaccine coverage in the Danish population is high, and the epidemic has reversed,” the Danish Health Authority said in a statement Wednesday.

“Therefore, the National Board of Health is now ending the broad vaccination efforts against COVID-19 for this season,” it said.

Denmark’s vaccination effort began in earnest near the end of 2020. Since then, 4.8 million citizens have received at least one shot, with 3.6 million people vaccinated up to and including a booster shot. While many confirmed instances of the Omicron variant have been confirmed in the country, there have been far fewer severe cases, implying a good general immune response throughout Denmark.

COVID-19: Denmark suspends COVID vaccination programme with health chiefs saying virus under control https://t.co/nVp9gKq7vW

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“We are in a good place,” Bolette Soborg, unit manager at the National Board of Health, commented. “We have good control of the epidemic, which seems to be subsiding. Admission rates [to hospitals] are stable and we also expect them to fall soon. Therefore, we are rounding up the mass vaccination program against COVID-19.”

Citizens will still be able to get vaccinated if they so choose, and health officials are still recommending that those in vulnerable populations get vaccinated.