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Coronavirus The triumph against the pandemic of Denmark, the country with the most tests in the world
BA.2, known as the silent variant of omicron, is spreading rapidly through Denmark, breaking infection records almost daily:
46,590 new cases on Tuesday, with 21.8% positive PCR and a contagion rate of 1 ,two.
Despite this, the general feeling among experts is one of optimism and the Prime Minister, the Social Democrat Mette Frederiksen, is expected to announce today the end of all restrictions from next week.
"The figures are high," acknowledged the Minister of Health, Magnus Heunicke.
"But
our current assessment is that the epidemic will peak in the near future
. We have hospitalizations under control, which is due to the combination that 3.5 million Danes have already been revaccinated (out of a population of 5.8 million) and that omicron is less serious".
In a report sent yesterday to the Government,
the Danish Epidemic Commission advises that the coronavirus should no longer be considered a socially critical disease as of February 5
, and that the few restrictions still in force be withdrawn on January 31.
In principle, Frederiksen is expected to accept the recommendations and thus announce a return to relative normality.
Among the
measures that would disappear
are the requirement of
covid passports in restaurants
, the use of masks indoors and on public transport, as well as limitations on nightlife.
The only restrictions that the Commission wishes to maintain - until March - are those related to negative tests and isolation for those who enter Denmark from abroad.
The new recommendations are justified by the fact that the high rate of infection by
The triumph against the pandemic in Denmark, the country with the most tests in the world
. That is, the number of entries is much lower than with other variants. In general,
the capacity of hospitals is not currently in jeopardy
due to the virus and several regions of the country are starting to dismantle their emergency facilities.
The Commission expects
the number of infected people to peak in late January
or early February. Currently, just over
50% of the infections
registered in Denmark, where
all the positives are sequenced, are due to the new BA.2 variant
. Renowned epidemiologists, such as Anders Fomsgaard, from the Danish State Institute of Serology,
warn, however, against the temptation to think that herd immunity is already a fact.
"It is possible to get infected first with BA.1 and soon after with BA.2.
In Norway, where BA.2 is also spreading
, there have been a few cases where this has happened. If the same thing happens in Denmark, it is possible that we have to prepare for a new upturn," he says.
"However,
we don't see any difference in admission rates, mortality rates and so on between BA.1 and BA.2
, so it's not something that worries us too much. short, since
BA.2 is still a new piece of the puzzle that we are investigating
," adds Fomsgaard.
"We still don't know why it has come to Denmark and why it is spreading so much here. It is possible that the reason for the
rapid spread is that BA.2 is more contagious
, or that it is more resistant to the already existing immunity among the population. , which allows it to infect better. We don't know yet."
In any case,
the ICUs of Danish hospitals are far from their saturation point,
which has caused concern to diminish and experts do not rule out a near end to the epidemic.
The health authorities have established the critical level at 200 patients with covid-19 in intensive care.
At the moment there are only 44 and the situation is expected to remain stable.
The biggest challenge for society right now is that the
number of infections is so high that sick leave could become a serious problem
, putting great pressure on all kinds of key functions, from healthcare to education.
During the past week, for example,
8% of daycare employees were on sick leave due to the virus
.
Another concern is a stumble just before crossing the finish line of the epidemic: that there is
so much infection in society that the most vulnerable are affected in large numbers
.
At the moment, however, the curves are evolving in the opposite direction, since in recent weeks adolescents have been infected ten times more than retirees.
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