It is very unlikely that Denmark will be hit by a second wave of corona infections, the country’s chief virologist said Tuesday. Now that the infection has fallen again, Denmark is preparing for the next relaxation phase of the corona measures.
Denmark was one of the first countries in Europe to lockdown. It was the first country outside Asia to relax the measures again around mid-April, after which the infection rate rose from 0.6 to 0.9 in early May.
This created fear of a second wave of contamination. That fear was further fueled when Monday showed that in neighboring Germany, the relaxation of the corona measures had led to a much higher degree of infection.
However, the Danish infection rate has fallen again in early May, from 0.9 to 0.7. This means that each corona patient infects an average of 0.7 others. One thousand patients, for example, infect seven hundred people.
With current figures, Danish state virologist Kare Molbak is optimistic. “With the knowledge we have today, I think it is very unlikely that we will see a second wave,” Molbak said at a news conference on Tuesday.
In Denmark, 527 people who have been infected with the coronavirus have died so far. There were no deaths on Tuesday, but the number of confirmed infections increased by 78 to 10,591.
Restaurants, museums and shopping centers open again
Denmark will begin the second phase of easing this week, opening restaurants, museums and shopping centers. Schools, nurseries, practices of psychologists and physiotherapists and courts have already opened.
In order to prevent a second contamination wave, Denmark increases the test capacity to 20,000 tests per day.
“Denmark is doing well,” said Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen during the press conference. “We are now one of the countries with the most tests per capita worldwide.”
The State Serum Institute (SSI), the Danish version of the RIVM, also said that it would test the Danish population more for the presence of antibodies, in order to better identify resistance to the virus.
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