Denmark to fully reopen almost all schools and businesses this week
All indoor businesses and educational institutions, with the exception of nightclubs, are to reopen in Denmark from Friday May 21st.
The decision to again speed up the lifting of coronavirus restrictions was reached in the early hours of Tuesday morning as a majority of parliamentary parties agreed on the move.
A text outlining the agreement was subsequently published by the Ministry of Justice.
As such, businesses and education will essentially open fully from this Friday, with the exception of nightclubs and discotheques.
“If you take a blank piece of paper it would state that nightclubs and discotheques are closed from May 21st. But everything else is open,” the leader of the Conservative party, Søren Pape Poulsen, said following the agreement.
The new agreement speeds up the earlier schedule for phased lifting of restrictions on businesses and education.
It also sets out longer-term plans for phasing out face mask and corona passport requirements as well as home working.
Rules requiring the use of face masks and corona passports will be revoked when all people over 16 in Denmark have been offered vaccination, several party leaders said following Monday night’s talks. The end-stage of the vaccination programme is currently scheduled to be reached at the end of August.
“We will follow to the letter the agreement to phase out the corona passport. It is unfair for people to have to renew their corona passport all the time,” said Liberal party leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.
READ ALSO:
- Corona passport: What you need to know about Danish Covid-19 vaccine and test documentation
- Great but annoying: How foreigners in Denmark feel about the coronavirus pass
A return to offices and shared workspaces is to occur in three steps. In the first phase, which begins on Friday, 20 percent capacity will be allowed while remaining staff must continue to work from home where possible. The proportion will increase to 50 percent on June 14th and 100 percent on August 1st.
The public assembly limit is scheduled to increase on Friday from 25 to 50 persons indoors and from 75 to 100 persons outdoors. That is in keeping with the existing plan for reopening.
Higher education can now return at 100 percent capacity on May 21st. The previous version of the reopening plan only allowed universities to open for 50 percent of students on that date.
All other adult education institutions, which have been allowed to reopen to varying extents, can now also return to normal capacity. Corona passports remain a requirement for students.
Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke said that the accelerated reopening and plans to phase out the corona passport were possible because of Denmark’s “healthy” position in the epidemic, despite a mild increase in case numbers in recent days.
“This is only possible because we are maintaining fundamental structures such as massive testing and local lockdowns. Those are the tools which enable us to now open further,” Heunicke said at a briefing following the announcement of the agreement.
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The decision to again speed up the lifting of coronavirus restrictions was reached in the early hours of Tuesday morning as a majority of parliamentary parties agreed on the move.
A text outlining the agreement was subsequently published by the Ministry of Justice.
As such, businesses and education will essentially open fully from this Friday, with the exception of nightclubs and discotheques.
“If you take a blank piece of paper it would state that nightclubs and discotheques are closed from May 21st. But everything else is open,” the leader of the Conservative party, Søren Pape Poulsen, said following the agreement.
The new agreement speeds up the earlier schedule for phased lifting of restrictions on businesses and education.
It also sets out longer-term plans for phasing out face mask and corona passport requirements as well as home working.
Rules requiring the use of face masks and corona passports will be revoked when all people over 16 in Denmark have been offered vaccination, several party leaders said following Monday night’s talks. The end-stage of the vaccination programme is currently scheduled to be reached at the end of August.
“We will follow to the letter the agreement to phase out the corona passport. It is unfair for people to have to renew their corona passport all the time,” said Liberal party leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen.
READ ALSO:
- Corona passport: What you need to know about Danish Covid-19 vaccine and test documentation
- Great but annoying: How foreigners in Denmark feel about the coronavirus pass
A return to offices and shared workspaces is to occur in three steps. In the first phase, which begins on Friday, 20 percent capacity will be allowed while remaining staff must continue to work from home where possible. The proportion will increase to 50 percent on June 14th and 100 percent on August 1st.
The public assembly limit is scheduled to increase on Friday from 25 to 50 persons indoors and from 75 to 100 persons outdoors. That is in keeping with the existing plan for reopening.
Higher education can now return at 100 percent capacity on May 21st. The previous version of the reopening plan only allowed universities to open for 50 percent of students on that date.
All other adult education institutions, which have been allowed to reopen to varying extents, can now also return to normal capacity. Corona passports remain a requirement for students.
Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke said that the accelerated reopening and plans to phase out the corona passport were possible because of Denmark’s “healthy” position in the epidemic, despite a mild increase in case numbers in recent days.
“This is only possible because we are maintaining fundamental structures such as massive testing and local lockdowns. Those are the tools which enable us to now open further,” Heunicke said at a briefing following the announcement of the agreement.
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