21 April much more is possible
A late night for the political parties in parliament ended with an agreement which allows Danish residents to resume a more normal life.
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Text and picture by Bente D. Knudsen
The Danish Government came under pressure from the opposition parties to put forward to an earlier date more of the planned opening measures, originally planned for May, due to the much more positive development in the epidemic than what the modulization from the Danish Institute of Infectious diseases, SSI, had predicted when schools etc. were allowed to resume after Easter.
The agreement means that from 21 April it will again be possible to eat out, to have a cold draft beer at the local bar or coffee house outdoors without having to plan anything in advance, schools can have more attendance, students studying a skill or a handicraft can attend school again (they had been very much penalised by not being able to attend, haircutting is difficult to learn in front of a computer screen) and people can gather in larger numbers outdoors and indoors as well.
Find an overview of the easing of restrictions as of 21 April below:
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Restaurants, bars, cafés etc:
Outdoor serving may start on 21 April with no demands concerning a coronavirus passport and no prebooking of a table required.
Indoors serving may start on 21 April with the requirement to show a coronavirus passport and with prebooking only, this in order to limit the number of guests indoors
Serving until 22:00 allowed and guests must have left by 23:00.
Nightclubs remain closed.
Right to assemble (in Danish forsamlingsloft):
21 April it will be possible to assemble indoors up to 10 people (at present only 5), and on 6 May this increases to 25, on 21 May it will increase to 50 and from 11 June, 100 people can gather indoors.
This right to assemble has a great impact on those planning to get married, host a large party with friends, celebrate a birthday etc. According to plan from the 1 August the right to assemble indoors will have no limit concerning number of attendees.
Outdoors, the right to assemble will go from 10 at present to 50 on 21 April, increasing to 75 on 6 May, to 100 on 21 May and from 11 June there will be no limit on the number of people allowed to assemble outdoors.
Festivals and concerts are still not mentioned in the agreement, but this is being evaluated, the Danish music festivals have requested an urgent decision as they need to know what they can expect to be able to plan, for instance the large music festival Roskildefestivalen, which takes place end of June, is waiting for an answer.
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Schools and higher education as of 21 April
5th to 8th grade may return to school every day, however more classes must be taken outdoors to prevent to many from being indoors at the same time
Students studying a skill, or a handicraft may return to school daily, others may attend 80 percent of the time and for university students up to 30 percent attendance is possible, also universities may use outdoor areas to gather more classes with attendance.
Sports events
The so-called Superliga-model is reinstated from 21 April meaning that selected areas in stadions may gather up to 500 fans per section, fans may attend only upon presentation of a coronavirus passport.
Leisure sports activities indoors:
Only children below the age of 18 and elderly above the age of 70 may attend indoors sports activites with a limit of 10 attendees. Fitness centres are still closed.
Museums, libraries, and art collections:
May reopen from 21 April, visitors allowed indoors only with a coronavirus passport.
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The coronavirus passport is a digital document which can be downloaded to be presented in paper, it shows either a negativ test result (to be used it must be less than 72 hours old both PCR and Antigene tests are shown), a covid-19 vaccine (2 injections required to be fully vaccinated) or that a person has been infected. Infections count on the passport that are up to 6 months old.
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