Denmark heralds the caution of the relaxed Corona measures. As of today, tens of thousands of Danish children can go back to daycare, kindergarten or school.
Copenhagen (AP) - For tens of thousands of Danish children, the cautious return from the time of the strict corona measures began on Wednesday.
Denmark was the first country in Europe to decide to close its school and daycare facilities in the Corona crisis, and Denmark reopened its crèches, kindergartens and schools up to the fifth grade.
In the morning, school instruction in many places in Copenhagen and other parts of the country was slowly resumed under special conditions such as plenty of space between the children and increased hygiene regulations. Some institutions wanted to follow in the coming days.
"I am deeply impressed at how quickly a school like this has managed to switch from closed to open again," said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen to TV2 when she saw herself in the morning at Lykkebo Skole in western Copenhagen from the school openings. "The children are very happy to see their comrades again." She later wrote on Facebook that it was fantastic to see how well the teachers and students had adjusted to the new situation.
But the opening of school and daycare facilities did not start again immediately after almost a month with the doors closed. Around half of the 98 Danish municipalities announced in advance that their schools were ready to restart on Wednesday. However, others still needed some lead time to meet the strict requirements of the authorities. In particular, the requirement to ensure that there was at least two meters between the students posed problems for some smaller schools. However, all facilities should be open again by Monday at the latest.
Denmark reacted particularly early to the first confirmed cases of infection in the country with strict measures. On March 14, the government closed the borders, including Germany. Restaurants, cafes, pubs, theaters and other leisure facilities have also been tight for weeks. Frederiksen had recently extended all of these measures until May 10. Meetings with more than ten people are therefore still prohibited, major events are prohibited until the end of August.
By opening the facilities for younger children, Frederiksen's government primarily wants to relieve parents who have had to look after their offspring at home in addition to working in the past four weeks. The new everyday life of the almost 400,000 schoolchildren of grade zero - that is the pre-school class in Denmark - up to five and the 250,000 children in the day care facilities should only gradually level off. Anyone who feels sick or has a corona case in the family should stay at home for the time being. Students of the higher grades continue to receive online lessons at home.
While the opening of schools is still being debated in Germany, the reopening of the facilities for the Danes represents the first relaxation of a central measure against the spread of the coronavirus. The strict procedure has clearly had an effect on the Danes: everyone with the virus According to the authorities, the infected person is currently only infected with an average of 0.6 other people - before the start of the corona measures in mid-March, this value had been 2.4. A value below 1.0 means that the epidemic will decrease sooner or later.
Recommendations for opening schools (in Danish)
Recommendations for opening day care facilities (in Danish)
Overview of the openings at TV2
Danish municipalities on the status of school openings
