Denmark will return to almost normal life next Friday (21), the government announced at dawn on Tuesday. With the exception of nightclubs, all other activities will reopen. Masks will no longer be used at the end of August.
The secret to relaxation is not in the vaccination, since the initial plan to increase your pace by ten failed with reports of side effects from the AstraZeneca immunizer. Denmark was one of the first countries to stop using the vaccine, which it completely abandoned in April.
A month later, the Scandinavian nation is after Iceland, Spain or Germany in proportion to vaccines administered per capita, but has taken another lead: that of tests. No other country in the world has surrounded Sars-Cov-2 as much as it has, according to the WorldOMeters registry.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 8 diagnostic kits have been used per capita – or 48 million tests. For comparison, the UK, which also relies on mass testing to provide defibrillation, performed 2.49 tests per capita, and the US, 1.4 – the Brazilian figures are inaccurate, but are around 0, 2 test per capita.
“Denmark has the right tools to control the epidemic: a great capacity for detection and action in the event of local epidemics, breaking the chains of infection,” Health Minister Magnus Hunicke said on Tuesday.
According to him, the acceleration of the return to activities is possible because the population has adhered to tests and vaccines. The positive impact of intensive diagnostics in controlling the pandemic was verified in a pilot experiment carried out on the country’s most touristic island, Bornholm.
In March, residents of the area started taking two daily tests, including in schools. The contagion rate remained under control even after the massive influx of visitors at Easter, said Gitte Bertelsen, councilor for the local administration.
The holiday was considered a critical time, as the number of people on the island typically increases by up to 25%. “There has been a marked increase in demand from residents for exams as the negative results allow them to go anywhere within the next 72 hours,” says Gitte.
Negative results for cornavirus automatically enter the Danish app known as ‘coronapasse’, where vaccination doses or recovery from Covid-19 are also recorded.
The island was also above average in terms of vaccination – almost 40% of the population has received at least one dose and more than 25% are fully vaccinated. In Denmark, until Tuesday, 29% had received an injection and just over 18% had already received both.
The government says that despite the still low number of vaccinations, at-risk groups have already completed the doses. Even if transmission increases with greater circulation among people, it should not translate into more hospitalization or increased deaths, according to health officials.
The reopening will bring together up to 50 people outdoors and 100 outdoors, limits that will be widened in July and released in August, except for large cities, such as festivals. Higher education and all adult schools will normally be able to take face-to-face lessons – which was already the case in basic education.
Plans also include ending coronapasse in July and stopping requiring the use of protective masks from the end of August, when the population over 16 is expected to be vaccinated.
Remote work begins to be eliminated this Friday: companies will be able to operate with 20% of their occupation face to face. The proportion will increase to 50% on June 14 and 100% on August 1.
Denmark has also published tourist trips to the Schengen zone (which includes 30 European countries), although passengers arriving from the orange zones must undergo testing and mandatory quarantine unless they are fully vaccinated.