D.Denmark is stepping up its measures in the fight against the high number of corona infections in the country. The Christmas holidays will be extended and the schools will in fact be closed from next Wednesday until the beginning of the year. The Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced on Wednesday evening that she expected the children to be able to go back to school on January 5th. From Friday on, clubs and discos must also close, concerts with more than 50 people standing in the audience are prohibited.
The requirements for wearing masks are also being expanded; they now have to be worn again in restaurants or cafes when you are not sitting in your seat. Frederiksen said they had prepared at the beginning of autumn that there would be more infections and hospital admissions. Therefore, they first tried to increase the vaccination rate. But now the new omicron variant of the virus makes further measures necessary.
Denmark had lifted all measures in the fight against the corona virus in September. With a rate of 77 percent of fully vaccinated people, the country is way ahead of its neighbors in the north and also Germany. The classification of Covid-10 as a society-threatening disease was also lifted, it was the basis for stricter measures. However, this decision has long since been withdrawn and the classification has just been extended by a further few weeks. In addition, the number of infections has been rising faster and faster since October, and new records for the number of infections have been reported over and over again in recent weeks. The seven-day incidence is currently 643. 7,000 new infections in one day were reported in the kingdom of five million people.
Norway allows schools to go earlier for the Christmas holidays
Recently, there was also a rapid increase in infections with the Omikron variant in Denmark. Most recently, there were a total of almost 800 confirmed cases, and it has long been no longer possible to trace all of these back to travelers or their contact persons. However, in addition to Great Britain, the kingdom is also one of the countries that carry out the most sequencing of positive samples. One expects that Omikron means more infections, more sick people and possibly more people in the hospital, says Frederiksen. “The new variant therefore also carries a considerable risk of placing a critical burden on the health system, and that is why we have to do more,” she said. Frederiksen pointed out that the measures did not mean a new lockdown and that Denmark was in a better position than other countries. It is now a matter of buying time, also to expand the vaccination campaign.
In Norway, too, new record numbers of corona infection numbers were recently reported with more than 5200 infections per day. The country has 5.3 million inhabitants, the seven-day incidence is 519. According to Norwegian media reports, schools in regions with particularly high numbers of infections can now also bring the Christmas holidays forward. However, they would have to make up for these additional days off later.
Norway had already tightened the measures in the fight against the corona virus last week – also under the impression of a large outbreak with the Omikron variant after a Christmas party in Oslo. Further new rules and recommendations came into force on Thursday, including limiting the number of guests in your own household.
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