A study shows that only about 1% of Danish have been in contact with the coronaviruswhich means the potential for a resurgence of the epidemic exists, an agency linked to the health ministry said on Wednesday.
The study was published by the SSI, an agency of the Danish Ministry of Health responsible for monitoring epidemic diseases. Its publication came on the day that Danish parliamentarians agreed on the next phase of the country’s deconfinement.
Out of 2,500 Danes randomly selected for the study, 1,701 have so far agreed to be tested for the presence of Covid-19 virus antibodies, the SSI said. Only twelve were tested positive, which corresponds to a rate of 1.1%.
Denmark vulnerable to renewed epidemic
The agency stressed that these were preliminary results and that several technical factors did not support the claim that they were generalizable to the entire Danish population.
Experts interviewed by public radio and television DR have already said the results are worrying and show that Denmark is vulnerable to a resumption of the epidemic.
“At the collective level we have no resistance, and that means that there is a potential for an upsurge in the epidemic”, Professor Jens Lundgren, an infectious disease specialist at Rigshospitalet, one of Denmark’s leading hospitals, told DR.
The balance sheet of the epidemic as of Wednesday reports 11,117 cases in Denmark and 554 deaths.
Reopening of the country
The parties represented in the Danish parliament agreed Wednesday on the next phase of reopening the country after the initial period of containment.
On April 15, the country began reopening kindergartens and resuming lessons in the first grades of primary school, with strict measures of social distance and hygiene.
High schools have also reopened this week and as a result of the agreement reached in parliament on Wednesday, museums, cinemas and zoos, among others, must also reopen.
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