Quote:

---

The European leader told a local radio channel the situation in Spain "is not what we faced a year ago" and that it was time "to evaluate the evolution of COVID to an endemic illness".

The move would see lockdowns and daily infection counts scrapped in favour of a system that would track Covid cases like the regular flu.

It comes as a string of positive studies show Omicron is milder than other strains, with data revealing the risk of hospitalisation is 50 to 70 per cent lower than with Delta.

---