Greater Copenhagen to investigate emergency call delays 

Elected officials in the Greater Copenhagen healthcare administration yesterday voted to initiate an “in-depth” investigation into issues with 112 emergency calls.

The region has faced criticism after reports of so-called ‘missed calls’, meaning calls in which the caller does not receive the necessary immediate assistance from a trained health worker on the emergency line due to call queuing.

Broadcaster DR reported last week that as many as 1 in 12 emergency calls in Greater Copenhagen during June and July this year went unanswered.

The investigation will be conducted internally but will call on outside experts, the region said.

“When you call 112 you must be sure of getting help as soon as possible and we are therefore taking this very seriously and trying to find solutions,” the chairperson of the Greater Copenhagen Region, Lars Gaardhøj, told news wire Ritzau. 

Denmark to donate three million additional Covid-19 vaccine doses

Three million Covid-19 vaccines are to be donated by Denmark to countries in Africa as well as climate change-threatened island states, according to a statement from the Prime minister’s office on Tuesday evening.

“Vaccines are our superweapon against the pandemic. And we must increase global access to vaccines. Because no one is safe before everyone is safe,” Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in the statement.

The donations will primarily be organised through the Covax scheme. The donated vaccines will be of the AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson variety, both of were withdrawn from Denmark’s national vaccination scheme earlier this year.

The country will soon take delivery of seven million doses of the J&J vaccine, it was reported yesterday, despite that vaccine not being in use in its mainstream vaccination programme.

Denmark earlier pledged three million vaccine doses to the scheme and is therefore doubling its contribution with the additional donation.

The country “has enough vaccines to cover Danish needs, including when you take into account the need for revaccination,” Frederiksen said.

Minister defends evacuation of dual national from Syrian camp 

Immigration minister Mattias Tesfaye has defended the government’s decision to evacuate a woman and her children from a prison camp in Syria after it emerged the woman was a dual national, and therefore ostensibly not eligible for rescue under government policy.

After broadcaster DR earlier reported that one woman with dual citizenship was allowed to return to Denmark, while four others must remain at the camps, the lawyer for the women accused the government of double standards.

“We are in a situation here where we are making an exception because there are some special circumstances in this case,” Tesfaye told DR.

“We are dealing with the evacuation of children. The evacuation is imminent,” he added.

We’ll have more on this story in an article today.

New ‘D-mark’ for digital standards to appear on products 

It’s not a return of the erstwhile German currency, but the ‘D-mark’ comes into effect in Denmark today.

The labelling, which will be used on products including food and children’s toys, is a mark of “digital responsibility”. Denmark is the first country in the world to use such a label.

The D-mark will appear on products that are made using responsible IT security and data management.