Press meeting concerning the corona situation

At 20:00, Danish Prime Minister will inform about measures to curb growth in spread.

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Despite high rates of vaccination, spread and infections with COVID-19 have grown and Denmark currently has 300 hospitalised patients with COVID-19, a figure not registered since February 2021, however only 36 are in an intensive care unit.

The figures show that the risk of hospitalisation for those not vaccinated lies a15,7  per 100,000 whereas for those who are fully vaccinated it lies at 4,3 per 100,000.

Even if there are less critically ill and in need of intensive care, the rise in spread had been causing alarm amongst the Danish health authorities, and experts have been asking for a corona strategy to curb growth during the coming winter season.

A concern is that  the flu season could put pressure on the Danish hospitals after a winter season 2020 with less flu patients due to the COVID-19 restrictions in place last winter.

Danish hospitals are more sensitive to a higher number of hospitalisations than last year as there is a shortage of nursing staff with hospitals under pressure for more than a year, also the nurse strike during the three month summer period has put pressure on the hospital capacity.

Now that the Danish society is completely open, spread of both COVID-19 amongst those who are still not vaccinated as well as flu infections is on the rise.

Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen has called a press meeting on Monday 8th November at 20:00 to inform about the government’s plans and which restrictions may again be put in place.

In Denmark, COVID-19 was declassified as a critical illness in the beginning of September 2021.

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The definition critical illness means that the Government can make use of the Epidemiloven, the law which regulates the restrictions and measures which the Danish Government can impose without consulting with the Danish Parliament during an epidemic.

For Epidemiloven to be re-enacted it requires unanimity in the Danish Parliament’s Health Council, Sundhedsudvalget. The Health Council has members from all the political parties in parliament, and a majority of the council’s members must be in favour of re-enacting the law.

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At a meeting has been called in the Health Council today at 18:00, presumably to settle whether the council is in favour of re-enacting the law thus enabling the Danish Government to reinstate restrictions.

During the past weekend, experts have voiced the need to again present a corona passport when participating in different activities as well as the use of facemasks in public places.

Testing has again become a priority and test centers that were closed in the beginning of October have been reopened, capacity has been increased and free quick tests are again available.

Read more about the reinforced testing capacity here.

Your Danish Life will issue a full update from the press meeting. The press meeting can be followed on DR1 as well as online at dr.dk.