PARIS (AP) — France says it will start administering Pfizer’s coronavirus antiviral drug this week, the first pill for treating COVID-19 approved in the 27-nation EU.

The country is still reporting among the world's highest per-capita daily infections, but virus-related critical care hospitalizations are easing, and the French government on Wednesday started lifting restrictions related to the surge in omicron cases.

Masks are now no longer required outdoors in France, large crowds are again allowed in concerts and sports venues and a government order to work from home part-time has been lifted.

Meanwhile, France has received its first 10,000 doses of the Pfizer drug Paxlovid and they will be available in pharmacies starting Friday, the Health Ministry said Wednesday. It says it's the first European Union country to start providing the treatment since it won regulatory approval last week.

It will be given to adults with symptoms who don’t require oxygen and who are at higher risk of severe disease, according to European Medicines Agency guidelines. Supplies of the drug remain limited worldwide.

The EMA last week recommended that Paxlovid be authorized for use, saying it could help people infected with COVID-19 avoid more serious disease and being hospitalized. The drug was cleared by regulators in the U.S. and Britain in December.

An antiviral pill from Merck also is expected to soon be authorized. Both drugs are expected to be effective against omicron because they do not target the spike protein where most of the variant’s worrisome mutations reside.

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand's government on Thursday said it will end its quarantine requirements for incoming travelers and reopen its borders, a change welcomed by thousands of citizens abroad who have endured long waits to return home.

Since the start of the pandemic, New Zealand has enacted some of the world's strictest border controls. Most incoming travelers need to spend 10 days in a quarantine hotel room run by the military, a requirement that has created a bottleneck at the border.

The measures were initially credited with saving thousands of lives and allowed New Zealand to eliminate or control several outbreaks of the coronavirus.

But, increasingly, the border controls have been viewed as out-of-step in a world where the virus is becoming endemic, and in a country where the omicron variant is already spreading. The bottleneck forced many New Zealanders abroad to enter a lottery-style system to try and secure a spot in quarantine and passage home.

The shortcomings of the system were highlighted over the past week by pregnant New Zealand journalist Charlotte Bellis, who was stranded in Afghanistan after New Zealand officials initially rejected her application to return home to give birth. After international publicity, officials backed down and offered her a spot in quarantine, which she has accepted.

The border changes mean that vaccinated New Zealanders returning from Australia will no longer need to go into quarantine from the end of this month, and vaccinated New Zealanders returning from the rest of the world can skip quarantine by mid-March. They will still be required to isolate at home.

However, most tourists will need to wait until October before they can enter the country without a quarantine stay. And anybody who isn't vaccinated will still be required to go through quarantine.

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PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech Republic’s government has agreed to end mandatory coronavirus testing at schools and companies this month, the prime minister said Wednesday.

The testing “undoubtedly” helped slow down the spread of infections and prevented the health system from being overwhelmed, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said.

“Given the development, we’ve decided to end the compulsory testing on Feb. 18,” Fiala said.

All company employees have been tested twice a week while schoolchildren and all school employees have been tested once a week since Jan. 17.

With 57,195 new cases recorded on Tuesday, the country registered a new day-to-day record, about 2,500 more than the previous record set last week on Wednesday.

The seven-day infection rate grew to 2,483 per 100,000 residents on Tuesday, up from 2,318 the previous day, as part of a surge in cases caused by the omicron variant.

Omicron is less likely to cause severe illness than the previous delta variant, according to studies. Omicron spreads even more easily than other coronavirus strains, and has already become dominant in many countries. It also more easily infects those who have been vaccinated or had previously been infected by prior versions of the virus.

The number of COVID-19 patients needing hospitalization has only been slightly increasing in recent days, reaching 2,653 on Tuesday, still far less that more than 7,000 in early December. Around 200 people have been in intensive care units, a stable number for the last two weeks.

Less than 1,000 people died of COVID-19 in January compared to almost 3,000 in December and 2,500 in November.

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BEIJING (AP) — Beijing reported three new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday as officials said the virus situation was under control with the Olympic Games set to open later in the week.

The three cases reported in the 24-hour period from Tuesday to Wednesday all involved people under some sort of quarantine.

“The current pandemic situation in the capital is overall controllable and it's headed in a good direction,” said Xu Hejian, a spokesman for the city government, at a daily press briefing. “Beijing is safe.”

The Chinese capital has been on high-alert as it prepares to host the Winter Olympics starting Friday.

Since Jan. 15, Beijing has reported a total of 115 locally transmitted cases of COVID-19, including six cases of the highly contagious omicron variant. In response, the city has mass tested millions of people and sealed off several neighborhoods in different parts of the city while avoiding a strict lockdown for the entire capital.

The restrictions meant that many families had to spend their Lunar New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, which were celebrated on Monday and Tuesday, cooped up in their homes. Local government officials and volunteers sent families packages of fruit, milk and nuts, according to Beijing News, a city-backed newspaper.

China has been able to keep the virus from transmitting widely within its borders through a costly and strict strategy that relies on lockdowns and mass testing.