Asian Countries Phasing Out COVID Curbs, Inching Closer to Normality

People with shopping bags walk across a traffic intersection towards a train station near a shopping street in the Ueno district in Tokyo on Dec. 30, 2022. Hiro Komae/AP Photo

Several countries in Asia have begun removing all COVID-19 curbs and treating the virus like a seasonal flu, signifying a shift into the endemic phase three years after its initial outbreak in 2020.

The World Health Organization (WHO) declared an end to the COVID-19 global health emergency on May 5, citing a downward trend of the deadly pandemic for more than a year.