Denmark is dropping all of its COVID-19 restrictions next week. “We say goodbye to the restrictions and welcome the life we knew before” t...
Denmark is dropping all of its COVID-19 restrictions next week.
“We say goodbye to the restrictions and welcome the life we knew before” the pandemic, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said Wednesday, according to The Associated Press.
“As of Feb. 1, Denmark will be open,” she said.
In a letter to parliament, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the government will implement an expert panel’s recommendations to end all restrictions.
“There has been a decoupling between the trend that was applicable earlier in the epidemic, between increasing infection and increase in COVID hospitalizations,” the panel said in a Jan. 21 report, according to Reuters.
Denmark is not alone in sending restrictions to the trash heap, according to Euronews. Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands are also loosening restrictions even as high numbers of omicron cases continue to be reported.
“We continue with a strong epidemic surveillance,” Heunicke said. “Then we … can react quickly if necessary.”
“It may seem strange that we want to remove restrictions given the high infection rates,” Frederiksen said. “But fewer people become seriously ill.”
“The pandemic is still here, but with what we know, we now dare to believe that we are through the critical phase,” she said, according to Bloomberg, calling the end of all restrictions “a milestone.”
The only rules that will remain after Feb. 1 require those entering the country to be tested and enter isolation. The rules will stay in place for another four weeks.
Denmark had 46,590 new cases on Tuesday, down from the nation’s peak of 47,831 on Jan. 21, according to Reuters.
Hospitalizations hit 918 on Tuesday, the highest in a year, but officials said most hospitalizations are for causes other than COVID-19.
Since peaking at 82 on Jan. 6, the number of Danish patients in intensive care dropped to 44 on Tuesday.
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