Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Friday
Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short round-up of the news in less than five minutes.
Covid-19 testing capacity to be increased as Denmark heads into reopening
Denmark this week announced a plan for the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions through to the end of May, even as many other countries in Europe are facing new waves of the virus and tightening restrictions.
Authorities have set out a plan which they hope will control the spread of infections as restrictions are eased. That includes the use of so-called ‘corona passports’, while the country’s already ample testing capacity is set to be further expanded, the government said in a briefing yesterday afternoon.
The current capacity to test 400,000 people with a combination of PCR tests and rapid tests every day will increase to 700,000 by mid-May, justice minister Nick Hækkerup said at yesterday’s briefing.
We’ll have more detail on the extended testing strategy in an article later today.
READ ALSO:
- How will Denmark use ‘corona passports’ in post-restriction reality?
- IN DETAIL: The coronavirus restrictions Denmark plans to lift, and when they will be lifted
Reliability of rapid test results reviewed
The national infectious disease agency State Serum Institute (SSI) has reviewed results of rapid tests for Covid-19 in Denmark, finding that 45 percent of positive tests are false positives, newspaper Politiken reports.
That means that almost half of all people who test positive via a rapid test are not actually infected with the virus.
As such, SSI will now only report positive PCR tests as confirmed cases of Covid-19, while a positive rapid test will be registered as a “suspected case”.
Nurses reject new collective bargaining agreement
Members of Denmark’s national nurses’ union Dansk Sygeplejeråd yesterday voted against a new collective bargaining agreement or overenskomst by a close 47.3 percent ‘no’ to 46.5 percent ‘yes’ to a new deal on working terms, news wire Ritzau reports.
A typical feature of the model used in the Danish labour market, collective bargaining agreements are a set of working conditions agreed between employers and union representatives.
Danish Word of the Day: overenskomst
Sticking points in the agreement include wages, high demands on flexibility and the high levels of pressure faced by nurses at work, Ritzau reports.
Further negotiations are expected but a strike is also a potential outcome when collective bargaining negotiations break down.
Proposal to make tech giants pay for news and music
The government is to forward a bill proposing tech giants such as Facebook and Google Danish media for using content on their platforms.
The proposal will also mean platforms used to share media, such as YouTube, will be required to make agreements with rights holders in order to display videos or music, the culture ministry said in a press statement.
A comparable law recently took effect in Australia, resulting in all news pages being temporarily blocked for Facebook users in the southern hemisphere country.
We’ll have more detail in this in an article today.
READ ALSO: Could Denmark force Facebook to pay for news content?
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Covid-19 testing capacity to be increased as Denmark heads into reopening
Denmark this week announced a plan for the gradual lifting of coronavirus restrictions through to the end of May, even as many other countries in Europe are facing new waves of the virus and tightening restrictions.
Authorities have set out a plan which they hope will control the spread of infections as restrictions are eased. That includes the use of so-called ‘corona passports’, while the country’s already ample testing capacity is set to be further expanded, the government said in a briefing yesterday afternoon.
The current capacity to test 400,000 people with a combination of PCR tests and rapid tests every day will increase to 700,000 by mid-May, justice minister Nick Hækkerup said at yesterday’s briefing.
We’ll have more detail on the extended testing strategy in an article later today.
READ ALSO:
- How will Denmark use ‘corona passports’ in post-restriction reality?
- IN DETAIL: The coronavirus restrictions Denmark plans to lift, and when they will be lifted
Reliability of rapid test results reviewed
The national infectious disease agency State Serum Institute (SSI) has reviewed results of rapid tests for Covid-19 in Denmark, finding that 45 percent of positive tests are false positives, newspaper Politiken reports.
That means that almost half of all people who test positive via a rapid test are not actually infected with the virus.
As such, SSI will now only report positive PCR tests as confirmed cases of Covid-19, while a positive rapid test will be registered as a “suspected case”.
Nurses reject new collective bargaining agreement
Members of Denmark’s national nurses’ union Dansk Sygeplejeråd yesterday voted against a new collective bargaining agreement or overenskomst by a close 47.3 percent ‘no’ to 46.5 percent ‘yes’ to a new deal on working terms, news wire Ritzau reports.
A typical feature of the model used in the Danish labour market, collective bargaining agreements are a set of working conditions agreed between employers and union representatives.
Danish Word of the Day: overenskomst
Sticking points in the agreement include wages, high demands on flexibility and the high levels of pressure faced by nurses at work, Ritzau reports.
Further negotiations are expected but a strike is also a potential outcome when collective bargaining negotiations break down.
Proposal to make tech giants pay for news and music
The government is to forward a bill proposing tech giants such as Facebook and Google Danish media for using content on their platforms.
The proposal will also mean platforms used to share media, such as YouTube, will be required to make agreements with rights holders in order to display videos or music, the culture ministry said in a press statement.
A comparable law recently took effect in Australia, resulting in all news pages being temporarily blocked for Facebook users in the southern hemisphere country.
We’ll have more detail in this in an article today.
READ ALSO: Could Denmark force Facebook to pay for news content?
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