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Coronavirus: Danes advised ‘caution’ when visiting outbreak countries

The Danish foreign ministry has advised the country’s citizens to be cautious when travelling to a number of countries with confirmed coronavirus cases.

Published: 26 February 2020 12:31 CET

Coronavirus: Danes advised 'caution' when visiting outbreak countries

Photo: Vibeke Toft/Ritzau Scanpix

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ citizens’ service (Borgerservice) section tweeted on Tuesday that Singapore is now included amongst the countries where Danes are advised extra caution, following a local coronavirus outbreak in the country.

SINGAPORE: Rejsevejledningen er opdateret. Vi opfordrer danskere til at være ekstra opmærksomme i Singapore, da der har været udbrud med lokal smittespredning med coronavirus. Læs: https://t.co/9YHKWlBres

— Udenrigsministeriets Borgerservice (@UMBorgerservice) February 25, 2020

The same warning is already in place for Iran, South Korea, Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan, Japan and Italy.

A latest report from Johns Hopkins University in the United States counts 91 confirmed infections in Singapore, 95 in Iran, 977 in South Korea, 84 in Hong Kong, 31 in Taiwan, 10 in Macao, 170 in Japan and 322 in Italy.

READ ALSO: How likely is a coronavirus outbreak in Denmark?

All trips to Hubei Province in China, the epicentre of the outbreak, have been advised against by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which also discourages all unnecessary trips to the rest of China.

Broadcaster DR reports that the rights of people with planned trips to affected countries depends on the Ministry’s official guidelines for the country in question.

If the ministry directly recommends not travelling to the destination, passengers can cancel journeys and be refunded the full cost of their trip.

In the absence of direct foreign ministry advice against travel to the destination, and if neither the airline nor travel company has cancelled flights, then you do not have the right to a refund.

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IN NUMBERS: Has the Omicron Covid-19 wave peaked in Denmark?

Graffiti in the Copenhagen hippy enclave of Christiania complaining of Omicron's impact on Christmas. Photo: Philip Davali/Scanpix

How many cases, hospitalisations and deaths are there in Denmark?

Denmark registered 12,588 new cases in the 24 hours leading up to 2pm on Saturday, down from the 18,261 registered on in the day leading up to Friday at 2pm, which was itself a decline from the record 28,283 cases recorded on Wednesday.

The cases were identified by a total of 174,517 PCR tests, bringing the positive percentage to 7.21 percent, down from the sky high rates of close to 12 percent seen in the first few days of January.

The number of cases over the past seven days is lower than the week before in almost every municipality in Denmark, with only Vallensbæk, Aarhus, Holseterbro, Skanderborg, Hjørring, Vordingborg, Ringkøbing, Kolding, Assens, Horsens, Thisted, and Langeland reporting rises.

Hospitalisations have also started to fall, with some 730 patients being treated for Covid-10 on Saturday, down from 755 on Friday. On Tuesday, 794 were being treated for Covid-19 in Danish hospitals, the highest number since the peak of the 2020-21 winter wave.

The only marker which has not yet started to fall is the number of deaths, which tends to trail infections and hospitalisations.

In the 24 hours leading up to 2pm on Saturday, Denmark registered 28 deaths with Covid-19, the highest daily number recorded since 20 January 2021, when 29 people died with Covid-19 (although Denmark’s deadliest day was the 19 January 2021, when 39 people died).

How does Denmark compare to other countries in Europe?

Over the last seven days, Denmark has had the highest Covid-19 case rate of any country in Europe bar Ireland. The number of new infections in the country has climbed steadily since the start of December, apart from a brief fall over Christmas.

So does this mean the omicron wave has peaked?

Maybe, although experts are not sure.

“Of course, you can hope for that, but I’m not sure that is the case,” said Christian Wejse, head of the Department for Infectious Diseases at Aarhus University Hospital. “I think it is too early to conclude that the epidemic has peaked.”

He said that patients with the Omicron variant were being discharged more rapidly on average than had been the case with those who had the more dangerous Delta variant.

“Many admissions are relatively short-lived, thankfully. This is because many do not become that il, and are largely hospitalized because they are suffering with something else. And if they are stable and do not need oxygen, then they are quickly discharged again.”

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said during a visit to an event held by the Social Liberal party that the latest numbers made her even more optimistic about the coming month.

“We have lower infection numbers and the number of hospitalisations is also plateauing,” she said. “I think we’re going to get through this winter pretty well, even if it will be a difficult time for a lot of people, and we are beginning to see the spring ahead of us, so I’m actually very optimistic.”

She said that she had been encouraged by the fact that Omicron was a “visibly less dangerous variant if it is not allowed to explode.”

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