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COVID-19

Are coronavirus cases increasing in Denmark?

109 new cases of coronavirus were registered in Denmark during the weekend, and a further 30 were confirmed on Tuesday.

Published: 28 July 2020 15:26 CEST
Are coronavirus cases increasing in Denmark?
People in central Copenhagen earlier this month. Photo: Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix

The official figures come from national infectious disease agency Statens Serum Institut (SSI).

Data from the weekend’s 109 figures correlates to an average of 36 new cases per day between Friday and Monday.

A total of 22 people are currently hospitalised with Covid-19 in Denmark, according to the latest figures published on Tuesday; three of these are in intensive care and receiving ventilator treatment.

A total of 15,214 new tests have been conducted since the previous count, according to SSI’s daily update. This does not necessarily correspond to the time frame covered by the figure for new confirmed cases.

Meanwhile, a large number of municipalities across the country show infection rates of 0 per 100,000 residents for the 7-day period up to July 28th.

Many others have infection rates of between 1 and 19 per 100,000 inhabitants while two municipalities – Herlev and Køge – are displayed as having between 20 and 29 infections per 100,000 inhabitants.

The criteria currently used by health authorities in Denmark for considering European travel to be safe is an infection rate of under 20 per 100,000 inhabitants in the destination country.

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Screengrab: SSI

The average number of daily new Covid-19 case over the two weeks previous to last week is 24 per day (week commencing July 6th) and 34 per day (week commencing July 13th).

Testing has remained stable in July at around 15,000 per day on weekdays and 10,000 per day on weekends, according to SSI’s archive of daily updates.

 

As such, the average number of cases recorded each day appears to be relatively stable and at a low level over the last three weeks, with local breakdowns also showing low figures.

Last week, Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke advised the public to maintain hygiene but also said the virus remained “under control” in the country.

“The Danish Patient Safety Authority is responsible for tracing active infections and they report that there are no persistent, out-of-control infection chains. Further, the total number of newly-hospitalised is still stable at a low level,” he added at the time.

Last weekend saw an increase in the number of hospitalised patients from 16 to 23 (this has since fallen again, to 22).

It should be noted that this may be related to fewer patients being discharged from hospitals in general on weekends.

The latest update from SSI is reassuring, according to Christian Wejse, a specialist in infectious diseases at Aarhus University.

SSI’s archived data shows daily new infection figures of 32, 37, 35, 54 and 38 from Monday to Friday last week.

“The figures look reasonable today after we have seen an increase in the number of infections in recent weeks, but now it looks more reassuring,” Wejse told Ritzau.

“If we had seen a continued increase in the number of infections, that would have been a cause for concern,” he added.

13,577 people have tested positive for the coronavirus since the beginning of the epidemic in Denmark. 613 deaths with the virus have been recorded.

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COVID-19

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

The number of new Covid-19 infections fell on Saturday for the second day in a row, following a three-day plateau at the start of last week. Has the omicron wave peaked?

Published: 8 January 2022 15:49 CET
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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