SHARE
COPY LINK

TRANSPORT

Danish public transport face mask requirement to continue until April

Current restrictions and requirements on Denmark’s public transport have been extended until April 15th, the Ministry of Transport has confirmed.

Danish public transport face mask requirement to continue until April
Face masks have been require on public transport in Denmark since August 2020. Photo: Emil Helms/Ritzau Scanpix

Restrictions affecting domestic transport as well as rules at airports will thereby continue until mid-April, the ministry said in a statement.

The announcement follows yesterday’s confirmation that some of the current national coronavirus restrictions – primarily in relation to shops and senior school classes – will be lifted in part on Monday, March 1st.

READ ALSO:

The political agreement to lift some restrictions in March included an understanding that transport restrictions would continue in their current form, the ministry wrote.

As such, face masks will still be required on public transport as well as during driving tests. Children under the age of 12 and people with relevant health reasons are exempted from the requirement. Buses, trains and Metro trains must operate at half capacity.

Passengers will continue to be barred from boarding flights to Denmark if they cannot present a negative Covid-19 test taken with the last 24 hours at the time of boarding. The rule applies to Danish citizens and Danish residents but not on domestic flights or flights from Greenland or the Faroe Islands.

The transport restrictions also prevent crew and passengers from cruise ships from going on land in Denmark unless special permission has been given.

More information about border and entry rules can be found here.

“The government would like to open as much as possible and we are going as far as we can in relation to health authority recommendations. That’s why it is also important that we stick to all the good measures with face masks and hygiene, as we are used to,” transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said in the statement.

“Additionally, I encourage taking the bicycle on short journeys and trying to travel outside of peak times,” the minister added.

Member comments

Log in here to leave a comment.
Become a Member to leave a comment.
For members

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?

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.” 

SHOW COMMENTS