Sweden broke with most of the rest of the world and never mandated that people wear masks during the coronavirus pandemic. Now its even dropping its loose recommendation to use them. Sweden's Public Health Agency said that its recommendation people wear face masks on rush hour on public transport ends on Thursday. It had advised masking between 7 a.m. and 9 a.m., and 4 p.m. and 6 p.m., but only when people could not easily distance themselves from others. There were no circumstances in which the government said people had to wear masks in other public places. The agency says on its website that advice on mouth protection in public transport during rush hour is removed" from July 1. The announcement comes as part of a wider easing on the same day, including the axing of restrictions on restaurant opening hours and more people being allowed at events. Jan Albert, an infectious diseases expert at Sweden's Karolinska Institute, [said] that he thought Sweden's new change made sense. He cited the falling number of new coronavirus cases in Sweden ... and the fact that many of the most vulnerable people in Sweden have now been vaccinated. Most of the world's governments have required people to wear face masks in certain situations, and some European countries have made people wear them outside. While other nations implemented lockdowns, Sweden had few rules. But its deaths did stay lower than many other European countries.