Denmark to Ease Restrictions Next Week After Coronavirus Lockdown

[Celerity]

https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2020/04/06/world/europe/06reuters-health-coronavirus-denmark.html

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has acknowledged her coronavirus strategy is 'a political choice'

COPENHAGEN — Denmark plans to reopen day care centres and schools on April 15 as a first step to gradually relax a three-week lockdown to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, the country's prime minister said on Monday. The Nordic country, which was one of the first in Europe to shut down, has seen the number of coronavirus-related hospitalisations and deaths stabilise over the past week.

It is now trying to balance the need to keep its population safe and the economic risks of a deep recession, tough decisions that many other governments around the world have lying ahead of them. "This will probably be a bit like walking the tightrope. If we stand still along the way we could fall and if we go too fast it can go wrong. Therefore, we must take one cautious step at a time," Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen told a media briefing.

Denmark on March 11 announced closure of schools, day cares, restaurants, cafes and gyms, and shut all borders to most foreigners. Frederiksen day care centres and schools for children in first to fifth grade will reopen on April 15, which will allow parents to return to a normal workday. All remaining restrictions including a ban on gatherings of more than 10 people would stay in place until at least May 10, while a ban on larger gatherings would remain in place until August. Frederiksen cautioned that the gradual reopening would only happen if the numbers stay stable and she urged all Danes to stick to the government's guidelines on social distancing and hygiene.

The number of daily deaths slowed to seven on Sunday from 14 on Saturday and 18 on Friday, while the number of hospitalisations has fallen slightly over the past week. Denmark has reported 187 coronavirus-related deaths and total of 4,681 infected. "If we open Denmark too quickly again we risk that infections rise too sharply and then we have to close down again," Frederiksen said. Denmark is the second country in Europe to provide dates and details on a gradual reopening of its coronavirus lockdown after Austria earlier on Monday said it was preparing for a "resurrection" the day after Easter by reopening some shops.

snip

[SunSeeker]

1. They can do it. Their numbers have gone down, unlike ours. nt

[Celerity]

2. they were one of the very first nations in the West to totally lock down

[SunSeeker]

3. Yup. Yet strangely, their neighbor Sweden never adopted broad lockdowns.

Sweden looks like it is regretting that. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/apr/05/sweden-prepares-to-tighten-coronavirus-measures-as-death-toll-climbs

[Celerity]

7. I live in Stockholm, and I do not see them making a move yet.

The government is rolling dice that we can do a slow burnthrough to hit herd immunity (thus almost all our schools under high school level are still open as schoolchildren are key superspreaders to push the over % up and get closer to herd immunity) or stall it out until a vaccine is out without overwhelming the medical infrastructure.

I have been posting a lot of articles on our situation here.

I am afraid if they go to total lockdown at this point it may well backfire, but it is completely up in the air (literally) atm.

[lapfog_1]

4. Unfortunately, this will not work out well for them

The world's viral reservoir of this particular virus, coupled with the asymptomatic carriers, super spreaders, etc means that once normal activity resumes, a new outbreak will happen and they will be in lock down mode again.

Seriously, the world needs a world wide pandemic response...

With the very first sign of a new (novel) virus... lock down the world (30 days, 60 days), develop and distribute an antigen (virus present) test and test everyone on the planet (yup, as many of the 7.2 billion of us as possible). Put the world economy on hold, no bill payments, no collections, no interest accrual, no stock market transactions, nothing. Pay EVERYONE enough in local currency to buy groceries and pay utilities. Keep essential people working but give EVERYONE working the same gear that the hospital workers get... and have enough so that people can dispose of used PPE. But only for essential workers ( hospital, police, fire, EMS, delivery people, grocery stores and essential product producers ).

Then, after the 30 day or 60 day lock down people return to work... start with the antibody tests... and more antigen tests... routine with contact tracing... and race to develop treatments and vaccines.

If you test positive for the antibody test, you are allowed to resume normal activity.

After a certain percentage of people are vaccinated or test positive with antibody, return to normal social engagements (sporting events, concerts, etc).

Won't happen... but this is like the best way out without the resulting economic disruption and probable deep recession / depression that results.

[Doodley]

5. They had their highest number of daily new cases yesterday. This would be a very bad move.

[Celerity]

6. Where are you getting that number from? None of my sources show this, & I follow Denmark closely

as we live in Sweden.

https://c19.se/en/Denmark

[Doodley]

9. I don't know why this is different. It's also showing one of the highest new case numbers today.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/denmark/

[Celerity]

10. That site often lags. c19.se is always the most up to date for Sweden, and often the other Nordics

We had a friend here (she is dating one of my wife's cousins) who is a nurse at Karolinska Huddinge (the biggest hospital in Scandinavia) give us that link weeks ago.

the last data from worldometers for Denmark is almost 3 days old (it turns to the 9th of April in an hour here)


here is the the latest update for Denmark, showing a clear downward move

https://c19.se/en/Denmark




Sweden, not so good

[Rstrstx]

8. Argentina is thinking about easing restrictions too

But they're talking about things like a limited reopening of essential services like banks, nothing on the scale of what Denmark is considering. Schools I think have been postponed until winter (June-July). This is according to a friend who lives there.

People are having trouble accessing money just to buy groceries and their proposed "stimulus checks" of 10,000 pesos (about $120-150) is still being ironed out as the government is trying to figure out just who can get one. If you're familiar with Argentina you know it can be a challenge to get money there even when things are operating normally. If you don't have a debit card or extra stored cash right now it's difficult to say the least.

On the bright side they do seem to have their corona cases under control, around 1300 active cases and 60 or so deaths in total, and they sealed themselves off from other countries, including their neighbors. Travel within the country is also prohibited for normal people and if you're out on the street you have to show that you're going out for food or medicine, it's a pretty strict nationwide lockdown and it's not a small country.