Facing postures. While Denmark lifts most restrictions, countries like Austria are taking a strong line and forcing the population to get vaccinated under the threat of economic sanctions
While Denmark lifts most restrictions, countries like Austria are taking a strong line and forcing the population to get vaccinated under the threat of economic sanctions.
Denmark
Decree the end of the pandemic
Denmark has decreed this week the end of the pandemic, becoming the first European country to withdraw its restrictions. The Danes have said goodbye to masks in public places (except in those establishments where they are required) and to limitations on capacity and hours. In addition, the quarantine for being positive becomes “advisable”, not mandatory.
The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has shielded herself from indicators such as the high rate of vaccinations to make this decision. The Nordic country has one of the highest inoculation rates in the EU, with 82% of the population receiving both doses. “We welcome life as we knew it before. Denmark will be an open society again », she celebrated. However, the pandemic is far from subsiding in the Nordic country. Last Sunday, 37,717 new cases were detected and there were 21 deaths. For this reason, the Danish authorities will maintain certain restrictions in the coming weeks, such as the obligation to present a negative covid test and spend a quarantine period for unvaccinated tourists.
Virulence in the classroom
The consequences of the pandemic are evident in classrooms, where all restrictions have already been lifted. According to the president of the Danish Association of Teachers, Gordon Orskov, “some schools are suffering from a violent wave of infection. There are still many sick teachers and infected students, so it will be difficult to return to normal in a short period of time.
Although it is true that positivity continues to rise, fewer and fewer infected people present a serious picture of the disease. The director of the National Board of Health, Soren Brostorm, does not think that lifting the restrictions will be a problem. “The number of hospitalized has dropped a lot. There are currently 1,048 admitted, but only 32 patients are in the ICU, a figure that contrasts with the other waves of the pandemic », he pointed out on national television.
The appearance of the new variant with a higher transmission, known as silent omicron, does not seem to worry the authorities either, who have stopped considering the pandemic as “a threat to society”.
That’s not to say they don’t take the virus seriously. Denmark is one of the countries that has tracked the virus the most with detection tests. On average, 20.5 tests per inhabitant have been carried out. A figure much higher than that of Spain (1.7), which is also one of the regions that performs the most tests.
Austria
3,600 euros fine for those not vaccinated
Austria is committed to a strong hand in managing the pandemic. Yesterday it became the first European country to apply compulsory vaccination against covid among the adult population (over 18 years of age). The rule affects 7.4 million of the country’s 8.9 inhabitants.
The inoculation rate of the European country is around 72%, a lower percentage than that of other neighboring countries such as France and Spain. The Austrian government advanced in November that it would impose compulsory vaccination and has not backed down, despite the demonstrations every weekend against the norm. Several of them have been massive, including those called by the far-right formation FPÖ, the only one that was contrary to the law in Parliament.
The Austrian Executive, on the other hand, argues that inoculation is the only way to return to normality. “This is the way we can manage to escape from the cycle of openings and closings, of confinements,” explained Health Minister Wolfgang Mueckstein.
500 euro raffle
Among the measures to promote vaccination, the Austrian Government organized a lottery in January only for vaccinated people and in which 500-euro vouchers were raffled. Given the lack of success of the incentives, they have passed to the sanctions. After the approval of the norm in the Parliament and from this week, those not vaccinated will face fines of between 600 and 3,600 euros. Only pregnant women, those who cannot receive the vaccine for medical reasons and those who have recovered from a covid infection in the last six months are exempt from sanctions.
The law, which will be valid for two years, comes at a time when the European country is facing the peak of the new wave of the omicron variant, with data setting a record with each passing day. On January 31, 32,846 new infections and 14 deaths were registered, according to figures from the Austrian Ministry of Health.
There are other countries that have followed the same line of action as Austria. Greece, for example, has imposed compulsory inoculation on those over 60 years of age, subject to a fine of 100 euros, and Italy extends it to all those over 50. Germany, for its part, has forced workers in critical sectors to be vaccinated such as health -doctors, nurses…- and care for the elderly -geriatric staff-.
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