The situation of the Covid-19 epidemic is far from being in regression and yet Denmark has taken the decision to lift a large part of the restrictions as of next week. Neighboring countries are worried.
A bridge separates Denmark from Sweden and yet, these days, the two Scandinavian countries seem to be diverging considerably from each other in the management of the health crisis.
Denmark announced these days the lifting of a large part of its restrictions (in particular the end of the wearing of masks and the reopening of bars and restaurants) as of next Monday. And yet, the epidemic is far from over. In the same situation, Sweden has just announced an extension of its restrictive measures for two more weeks. The opportunity to take stock of the Danish situation.
Record contamination and BA2
Denmark is facing a continuous increase in contamination. As in France, they have never been so high. And yet the country lived under restrictions. The appearance of Omicron’s subvariant, BA2, appears to have accelerated the number of new positive cases. Having become uncontrollable, the epidemic has forced Denmark to review its strategy and to favor collective immunity.
The Danish health authorities (the SSI for Statens Serum Institut) believe that between the strong vaccination and the breakthrough of Omicron in all its forms, the immunity of the population in Denmark will arrive in the coming weeks. “Infection rates are bound to fall as it will be more difficult for the virus to find people to infect,” said SSI director Tyra Grove Krause.
Remains an unknown, the risk of reinfection with other variants and the immunity limited in time whether with the vaccine or with the virus. Denmark hopes that it will be long enough to allow a glimpse of good weather without a strong resumption of the epidemic.
Hospitalization on the rise among infants
This could be THE black spot of the next few weeks in Denmark: with the crazy circulation of the virus, the incidence rates are exploding in all age categories and, inevitably, this is felt in the hospitalizations of patients for whom serious forms are detected.
Thus, a graph of the SSI has been feeding social networks for a few days and shows that it is the age group of infants (0-2 years) which has been the most affected, proportionally, by hospital admissions since this beginning. of year. The curve of 0-2 years explodes all the others and, particularly, that of +80 years. Unthinkable a few weeks ago!
Ok now this is worrying.
Denmark is witnessing an *exponential* rise of hospital admissions.
Kids are being hospitalized massively.
The world should be screaming. pic.twitter.com/AqRBM1DgXR
— Gabriel Hébert-Mildu2122 u24e5 (@Gab_H_R) January 26, 2022
This could be the hidden effect of the BA2 sub-variant, which is not yet known if the contagiousness and dangerousness are greater than those of Omicron.
But, as in France, Denmark is observing declines in hospitalizations in critical care units while all the other indicators are panicking. It is this data that decided the Danish leaders to lift a large part of the restrictions.
“What’s wrong with the Danes?”
Still, this decision seems quick in the eyes of Denmark’s neighbors. The German newspaper Bild asked in one: “What’s wrong with the Danes?” And this while in Germany the country is wondering about the vaccination obligation at a time when new contamination records are still being broken.
The Swedish newspapers are also wondering. And the Scandinavian editorialists recall that, in the crisis, Denmark has “always been one step ahead of the others”.
“What happens in Denmark will happen elsewhere within two weeks.”
Many hope so even if, once again, with the Covid, the certainty of the day is not that of the next day…