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KEY POINTS: The new Covid-19 rules which take effect in Denmark on Monday

New Covid-19 rules and guidelines, primarily relating to use of face masks and the coronapas health pass, will take effect in Denmark on Monday, November 29th.

Published: 25 November 2021 14:47 CET
Updated: 29 November 2021 09:45 CET
Face masks return to Danish daily life from November 29th.
Face masks return to Danish daily life from November 29th. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

After Health Minister Magnus Heunicke announced at a ministry press briefing on Wednesday that the government will seek to reimplement face mask rules on public transport and in stores, approval from parliament’s Epidemic Committee on Thursday paved the way for their return on Monday.

Rules relating to the coronapas Covid-19 health pass will also be broadened and the interval for which a negative Covid-19 test gives a valid pass reduced.

The government was acting on recommendations given by the advisory independent Epidemic Commission, Heunicke earlier said. The parliamentary committee has now approved the measures, meaning they can come into effect from November 29th.

The decision was made in light of escalating infection and hospitalisation numbers with Covid-19 in Denmark throughout November.

READ ALSO: Face masks to return in Denmark from Monday

Return of face masks

Face masks will be required on public transport, including taxis and ride sharing services. They will also have to be used in supermarkets and in other retail settings like shopping malls and stores.

Masks will also be required in health and social care settings such as hospitals, clinics and community care.

Children under 12 years old are generally exempted from wearing face masks.

Shorter coronapas validity period for negative Covid tests

The period for which a negative Covid-19 test gives a valid coronapas will be reduced to 72 hours for a negative PCR test and 48 hours for a negative rapid antigen test.

Up to now, unvaccinated people can hold a valid coronapas for 96 hours through a negative PCR test, or 72 hours with a rapid antigen test.

Coronapas required in more places and at smaller events

Events at which participants or spectators must show a valid coronapas will have a maximum attendance of 100 indoors and 1,000 outdoors. Those limits are 200 and 2,000 respectively under the current rules.

The health pass will also be extended to be required at public sector workplaces and vocational and youth colleges (voksen- og ungdomsuddannelser) and language centres as well as at hairdressers, tattooists, solariums, and similar services. Visitors to elderly care homes and social care facilities will also be required to present a coronapas.

It is currently required at bars, cafes, restaurants and large events.

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COVID-19 ALERT

Covid-19: European summer holidays threatened by rise of subvariants

A resurgence of Covid-19 cases in Europe, this time driven by new, fast-spreading Omicron subvariants, is once again threatening to disrupt people's summer plans.

Published: 22 June 2022 16:08 CEST
Covid-19: European summer holidays threatened by rise of subvariants

Several Western European nations have recently recorded their highest daily case numbers in months, due in part to Omicron sub-variants BA.4 and BA.5.

The increase in cases has spurred calls for increased vigilance across a continent that has relaxed most if not all coronavirus restrictions.

The first resurgence came in May in Portugal, where BA.5 propelled a wave that hit almost 30,000 cases a day at the beginning of June. That wave has since started to subside, however.

READ ALSO: KEY POINTS: German Health Ministry lays out autumn Covid plan

Italy recorded more than 62,700 cases on Tuesday, nearly doubling the number from the previous week, the health ministry said. 

Germany meanwhile reported more than 122,000 cases on Tuesday. 

France recorded over 95,000 cases on Tuesday, its highest daily number since late April, representing a 45-percent increase in just a week.

Austria this Wednesday recorded more than 10,000 for the first time since April.

READ ALSO: Italy’s transport mask rule extended to September as Covid rate rises

Cases have also surged in Britain, where there has been a seven-fold increase in Omicron reinfection, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

The ONS blamed the rise on the BA.4 and BA.5 variants, but also said Covid fell to the sixth most common cause of death in May, accounting for 3.3 percent of all deaths in England and Wales.

BA.5 ‘taking over’

Mircea Sofonea, an epidemiologist at the University of Montpellier, said Covid’s European summer wave could be explained by two factors.

READ ALSO: 11,000 new cases: Will Austria reintroduce restrictions as infection numbers rise?

One is declining immunity, because “the protection conferred by an infection or a vaccine dose decreases in time,” he told AFP.

The other came down to the new subvariants BA.4 and particularly BA.5, which are spreading more quickly because they appear to be both more contagious and better able to escape immunity.

Olivier Schwartz, head of the virus and immunity unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, said BA.5 was “taking over” because it is 10 percent more contagious than BA.2.

“We are faced with a continuous evolution of the virus, which encounters people who already have antibodies — because they have been previously infected or vaccinated — and then must find a selective advantage to be able to sneak in,” he said.

READ ALSO: Tourists: What to do if you test positive for Covid in France

But are the new subvariants more severe?

“Based on limited data, there is no evidence of BA.4 and BA.5 being associated with increased infection severity compared to the circulating variants BA.1 and BA.2,” the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) said last week.

But rising cases can result in increasing hospitalisations and deaths, the ECDC warned.

Could masks be making a comeback over summer? (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

Alain Fischer, who coordinates France’s pandemic vaccine strategy, warned that the country’s hospitalisations had begun to rise, which would likely lead to more intensive care admissions and eventually more deaths.

However, in Germany, virologist Klaus Stohr told the ZDF channel that “nothing dramatic will happen in the intensive care units in hospitals”.

Return of the mask? 

The ECDC called on European countries to “remain vigilant” by maintaining testing and surveillance systems.

“It is expected that additional booster doses will be needed for those groups most at risk of severe disease, in anticipation of future waves,” it added.

Faced with rising cases, last week Italy’s government chose to extend a requirement to wear medical grade FFP2 masks on public transport until September 30.

“I want to continue to recommend protecting yourself by getting a second booster shot,” said Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza, who recently tested positive for Covid.

READ ALSO: Spain to offer fourth Covid-19 vaccine dose to ‘entire population’

Fischer said France had “clearly insufficient vaccination rates” and that a second booster shot was needed.

Germany’s government is waiting on expert advice on June 30 to decide whether to reimpose mandatory mask-wearing rules indoors.

The chairman of the World Medical Association, German doctor Frank Ulrich Montgomery, has recommended a “toolbox” against the Covid wave that includes mask-wearing, vaccination and limiting the number of contacts.

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