Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Thursday
No extra booster dose, school to trial four-day week, PostNord to document failed deliveries, and mortgage arrears on the rise. Here are some of the main stories from Denmark.
Covid-19: Denmark decides against additional booster this winter
No additional booster vaccination against Covid-19 will be offered this winter, the Danish Health Authority confirmed on Wednesday.
Together with an expert advisory group, the Health Authority has considered whether to offer vulnerable groups an extra booster vaccination against Covid-19 this winter.
People at higher risk of serious illness with the virus including those over the age of 85 will not be offered a further booster this winter, the authority has decided.
Denmark offered a booster in autumn 2022 to all people over the age of 50 and younger people considered vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The booster was backed up by data suggesting it improves protection against hospitalisation with Covid-19 by 74 percent, according to the Danish Health Authority.
Danish vocab: boosterstik – booster dose
Defense Minister hospitalised after dizzy spell
Denmark's defense minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, was examined at the Rigshospitalet hospital in Copenhagen on Wednesday after a spell of dizziness and a headache.
"Fortunately, there is nothing serious to report and I am feeling well again," Ellemann-Jensen said in a Facebook post. "I, therefore, expect to be back in work clothes again tomorrow, and then of course I will pay extra attention to my health in the near future."
On Monday, Ellemann-Jensen was in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv together with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, with the three meeting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
Danish vocab: et ildebefindende – a malaise
Danish school to trial four-day week
Pupils and teachers at Aalborg Cathedral School are to launch an experiment with a four-day week after the summer holidays, exchanging six days of their summer holidays for six Mondays off over the autumn term to see if it brings improved well-being.
"We have been inspired by those workplaces which operate with four-day working weeks. Then we talked about whether we could do something similar, because there is a lot of pressure on both staff and students," Christian Nielsen Warmin, the school's headteacher, told the Danish broadcaster TV2.
Danish vocab: bedre trivsel – improved well-being
PostNord to consider photo documentation of failed deliveries
Denmark's PostNord postal service is considering making postal workers document failed deliveries to reduce the level of customer complaints.
The company's CEO in Denmark, Peter Kjær Jensen, said he believed that it was rare for postal workers to claim to have tried to deliver a package without even visiting the property, but acknowledged that many people in Denmark felt angry when they receive a message about a failed delivery despite being home all day.
"We have very few of these cases, but they do exist. And we have also had postmen who are not skilled enough, or who have misunderstood how parcels are delivered correctly," he said.
The company is currently trialling photo documentation in Stenløse, Ølstykke and Veksø, with postal workers required to take a photo of the package that has been delivered without direct customer contact in order to document the delivery, or take a picture of the building's entrance to prove that they have visited.
"Customers will be able to access the image via our app if the package fails to be delivered," Jensen said.
Danish vocab: dygtig – skilled
Danish mortgage arrears increase as costs go up
A higher number of Danish homeowners are finding it difficult to meet the repayment schedule on their mortgages, new figures show.
Data from the interest organisation from banks, Finans Danmark, shows that the “arrears percent” or restanceprocent was 0.14 percent in the third quarter of 2022, a small increase compared to preceding quarters.
That means homeowners on average did not pay 1.4 kroner in every 1,000 kroner they were due to pay on their mortgages during the quarter.
It is understandable that late 2022 presented challenges for homeowners, an analyst said in comments to the Ritzau newswire.
Danish vocab: restanceprocent – the percentage of homeowners in arrears
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Covid-19: Denmark decides against additional booster this winter
No additional booster vaccination against Covid-19 will be offered this winter, the Danish Health Authority confirmed on Wednesday.
Together with an expert advisory group, the Health Authority has considered whether to offer vulnerable groups an extra booster vaccination against Covid-19 this winter.
People at higher risk of serious illness with the virus including those over the age of 85 will not be offered a further booster this winter, the authority has decided.
Denmark offered a booster in autumn 2022 to all people over the age of 50 and younger people considered vulnerable to the coronavirus.
The booster was backed up by data suggesting it improves protection against hospitalisation with Covid-19 by 74 percent, according to the Danish Health Authority.
Danish vocab: boosterstik – booster dose
Defense Minister hospitalised after dizzy spell
Denmark's defense minister Jakob Ellemann-Jensen, was examined at the Rigshospitalet hospital in Copenhagen on Wednesday after a spell of dizziness and a headache.
"Fortunately, there is nothing serious to report and I am feeling well again," Ellemann-Jensen said in a Facebook post. "I, therefore, expect to be back in work clothes again tomorrow, and then of course I will pay extra attention to my health in the near future."
On Monday, Ellemann-Jensen was in the Ukrainian city of Mykolaiv together with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) and Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, with the three meeting the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyj.
Danish vocab: et ildebefindende – a malaise
Danish school to trial four-day week
Pupils and teachers at Aalborg Cathedral School are to launch an experiment with a four-day week after the summer holidays, exchanging six days of their summer holidays for six Mondays off over the autumn term to see if it brings improved well-being.
"We have been inspired by those workplaces which operate with four-day working weeks. Then we talked about whether we could do something similar, because there is a lot of pressure on both staff and students," Christian Nielsen Warmin, the school's headteacher, told the Danish broadcaster TV2.
Danish vocab: bedre trivsel – improved well-being
PostNord to consider photo documentation of failed deliveries
Denmark's PostNord postal service is considering making postal workers document failed deliveries to reduce the level of customer complaints.
The company's CEO in Denmark, Peter Kjær Jensen, said he believed that it was rare for postal workers to claim to have tried to deliver a package without even visiting the property, but acknowledged that many people in Denmark felt angry when they receive a message about a failed delivery despite being home all day.
"We have very few of these cases, but they do exist. And we have also had postmen who are not skilled enough, or who have misunderstood how parcels are delivered correctly," he said.
The company is currently trialling photo documentation in Stenløse, Ølstykke and Veksø, with postal workers required to take a photo of the package that has been delivered without direct customer contact in order to document the delivery, or take a picture of the building's entrance to prove that they have visited.
"Customers will be able to access the image via our app if the package fails to be delivered," Jensen said.
Danish vocab: dygtig – skilled
Danish mortgage arrears increase as costs go up
A higher number of Danish homeowners are finding it difficult to meet the repayment schedule on their mortgages, new figures show.
Data from the interest organisation from banks, Finans Danmark, shows that the “arrears percent” or restanceprocent was 0.14 percent in the third quarter of 2022, a small increase compared to preceding quarters.
That means homeowners on average did not pay 1.4 kroner in every 1,000 kroner they were due to pay on their mortgages during the quarter.
It is understandable that late 2022 presented challenges for homeowners, an analyst said in comments to the Ritzau newswire.
Danish vocab: restanceprocent – the percentage of homeowners in arrears
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