Here’s what you need to know about Denmark’s 'phase four' reopening

On Saturday, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen announced that facemasks would become mandatory on public transport across the country from August 22nd to try to contain the coronavirus.

The reopening agreement presented Saturday is a new version of a previously-planned phase four, which takes into account increasing infections in Denmark in recent weeks.

As such, a planned increase in the maximum number of people allowed to gather or attend an event remains at 100 and will not be increased at the current time. This will be reviewed again in September, justice minister Nick Hækkerup said according to DR.

But a rule requiring tourists to spend at least six nights in Denmark will be abolished as planned.

The new agreement also provides for bars and restaurants to remain open for longer than in earlier stages of the reopening.

Previously required to close at midnight, the new rules will enable bars and restaurants to remain open until 2am, provided new guests are not allowed to enter after 11pm.

Nightclubs and discos, which were part of the previous version of the phase four opening, will not be allowed to reopen yet, with permission for this set back to no earlier than October 31st.

But establishments of this type will be allowed to open under the rules applied to bars and restaurants they can be “adapted to bars within health authority guidelines,” Hækkerup said.

That means changes including the removal of dance floors and limiting the amount of people that can congregate in bar areas.

The government also said it would look into a provision providing free face masks for underprivileged groups, DR reports.

“We have been given notice that the government will find a solution so that people with chronic conditions, depleted immune systems or the socially vulnerable will be able to get free face masks,” Peder Hvelplund, health spokesperson with left-wing party the Red Green Alliance, said to the broadcaster.

READ ALSO: Danish party calls for free face masks for low-income groups

Phase four will be in place until October 31st and the key elements are listed below.

 

• The requirement for foreign tourists for 6 nights in Denmark is removed.
• The assembly ban on over 100 people is extended until October 31st but the political parties will review this by the end of September.
• Certain criteria allow assembly of up to 500 people (for example in football stadia). This is also extended until October 31st.
• Bars, cafés and restaurants may open until 2am if new guests are not allowed in after 11pm
• Nightclubs, discos and the similar establishments remain closed until October 31st. However, if they adapt their activities to follow restaurant and bar guidelines, they can open on these terms.
• Outdoor funerals and burials are subject to an assembly limit of 200 people.
• The government expects the use of face masks in public to be expanded and made more uniform.
• Laboratory facilities are to be extended with the goal of providing access to a Covid-19 test within 24 hours for 80 percent of the population should have, and a response to the test the following day, also for 80 percent.
• Negotiations will take place with business, culture and sports sectors that will be hit extremely hard by continued closures, travel guidelines and assembly limits. people, border closures and travel guidance. The parties agree that affected companies will need to be compensated.
• Travel guidelines may be regionalised.
• In order to break local chains of infection, authorities can conduct targeted campaigns including face mask use, working from home and local lockdowns.

Source: Ritzau, Ministry of Justice