Denmark wants to lift all corona rules – despite the record number of cases

Created: 01/26/2022, 13:35

By: Luke Rogalla

Magnus Heunicke, Minister of Health of Denmark since 2019: The Social Democrat announces the lifting of all corona restrictions from February.

(Archive photo) © Mads Claus Rasmussen/Imago

Denmark wants to drop almost all corona restrictions in the country from February.

The government justifies the step with the high vaccination rate.

Copenhagen – On Tuesday (January 25, 2022) Denmark registered around 46,000 new infections with the corona virus within 24 hours – with a population of around 5.8 million inhabitants.

The seven-day incidence as of Wednesday is 5010.8 (Source: Johns Hopkins University/Our World in Data).

Despite the record number of cases, the government wants to lift all corona restrictions* next month.

But how does that fit together?

Health Minister Magnus Heunicke explains the decision.

Denmark wants to drop all corona rules

Health Minister Magnus Heunicke wanted the classification of Covid-19 as a threat to society to be removed from February 1, 2022, as he announced in a letter to MPs published on Wednesday.

This would de facto mean the lifting of the national corona restrictions currently in force, such as the obligation to wear masks and shorter opening times for restaurants.

Heunicke justified his project with the high corona vaccination rate in Denmark.

In Germany's neighboring country, the highly contagious omicron variant* of the corona virus spread early and caused the number of new infections to rise to new highs every day.

However, the government in Copenhagen is currently assuming that the peak of the corona wave in Denmark will soon be reached.

Heunicke emphasized this in the short message service Twitter.

Corona: Denmark registers record numbers of cases – but the situation is under control

"We have good control over hospitalization rates," Heunicke added.

The fact that the hospitals in Denmark are not overburdened is due to the fact that the Omicron variant causes less severe disease progression and 3.5 million people, more than 60 percent of the Danish population, have already received a booster vaccination.

This puts the country well above the plans of the health authorities.

BA.2

In Denmark, a sub-variant of the omicron mutant of the coronavirus* has become established.

In Europe, Omikron has become the predominant corona variant.

Because of the - usually - milder course of the disease in the case of an infection with this variant and because of the increasing immunity of the population through vaccinations or already overcome Covid-19 diseases, some European countries are currently deciding to relax their corona restrictions or are considering it.

In Germany, the heads of government of the federal and state governments decided on Monday to maintain the current corona measures*.

(lrg/afp) *