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Denmark announces new coronavirus relief for businesses and culture

A broad group of parliamentary parties on Tuesday evening reached agreement on an eight-billion kroner stimulus package to help Danish businesses and cultural institutions hit by the coronavirus crisis.

Published: 28 October 2020 08:47 CET

Denmark announces new coronavirus relief for businesses and culture

Business minister Simon Kollerup announces a new relief package for business and culture. Photo: Philip Davali/Ritzau Scanpix

The financial package also includes a liquidity fund totalling 28 million kroner and extends and expands existing measures.

The support programmes are in place until January 31st 2021.

“I am very pleased that we this evening have been able to agree on a broadly-supported political deal with many of parliament’s parties. It is a deal worth a total of 8.2 billion kroner for Danish businesses and culture,” business minister Simon Kollerup said at a briefing.

A cross-aisle group of political parties – the opposition Liberals (Venstre) and Conservative parties, and government allies the Social Liberals and Red Green Alliance have all put their weight behind the deal, along with the governing Social Democrats.

“The arrangements we have agreed on here tonight are arrangements that will be valid until January 31st, as long as there are still restrictions. That way, we create more of a long-term outlook. And Danish companies will know what to expect,” Kollerup said.

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen last week signalled new measures would be taken to assist businesses when announcing renewed coronavirus restrictions in Denmark.

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The provisions have been extended to include businesses such as taxi companies, cinemas, public education institutions and conference centres which may can feel a secondary impact of coronavirus-related restrictions, Ritzau writes.

Financial relief is available to cultural entities, sports clubs and associations as well as businesses.

Compensation for overheads is to be extended, meaning the threshold for applying for the relief will be reduced to a loss of 30 percent of normal turnover, having previously been set at 35 percent.

The maximum compensation for small businesses will be increased to 90 percent.

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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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