Coronavirus DK: Self-tracing and self-regulating commerce

The Danish Health Authority is planning to change its corona virus testing policy (DK) so that infected individuals become responsible for informing people they have been in contact with about their condition. Søren Brostrøm, the head of the agency, explained that the Patient Safety Authority does not have the capacity to trace contacts because it is testing more people than before. He described the change as a “paradigm shift.” Contact is defined as sharing the same home or being close together for at least 15 minutes. This means that many more people, including those without symptoms, will be tested. According to Lone Simonsen, Professor at Roskilde University, this policy will allow the economy to reopen sooner and make it safer for people who have not been infected to move about in society. 

Others are more skeptical about the plan. Allan Randrup Thomsen, Professor of Virology at University of Copenhagen, is not certain that all infected people will be up to the task. He thinks that active tracing and increased testing will get rid of the virus sooner and allow additional businesses to open, but he also believes that every infected person should have a professional healthcare contact who follows up on the tracing. Martin Geertsen, the healthcare spokesperson for the Liberal Party, says that if the Health Authority wants to change its testing strategy yet again, it should make sure that the public understands its expectations because it has not succeeded in carrying out its earlier plans to test a much higher number of people. In the past week it has increased tests from around 5,000 to more than 10,000, it has said that, with the new Test Centers set up in tents at four locations in the country, it has the capacity to test up to 42,000.

Backdoor fashionistas

Three stores at a shopping center have discovered a trick that has allowed them to open (DK) up again. According to Peter Møller, who owns Herrehuset, a men’s clothing shop, if a store has a back door, it is allowed to open. The front entrance of the shop is closed and displays a sign directing customers to the back. Customers are happy that they can return, says Møller, and the shop has plenty of room so that people do not need to come close to one another. Theresa Berg Andersen, the business spokesperson for the Socialist People’s Party, thinks that the rules need to be clarified. Shopping centers are not allowed to open yet, but it is unclear whether the rule applies to individual shops. Simon Kollerup, the Minister for Business, Industry and Financial Affairs, did not want to comment on the case.

Coming to the furniture giant's defense

Yesterday I wrote about IKEA’s reopening and Simon Kollerup’s disapproval. Various right-wing politicians have now criticized Kollerup for interfering with IKEA’s business (DK). Alex Vanopslagh, from the Liberal Alliance Party, says that when IKEA has a legal right to open it is inappropriate for Kollerup to pronounce his personal opinion about the issue. Lars Løkke Rasmussen, former prime minister, also asks, in a tweet, whether citizens and businesses are supposed to follow the country’s laws or a minister’s intuitions. The right-wing parties demand that the government explain more precisely what rules apply to shops and other businesses. Commentators have questioned Løkke’s own intervention in the lockdown exit strategy debate as undermining the authority of the current Liberal Party leader, Jacob Ellemann-Jensen.

IKEA maintains that it was not subject to any specific order to close. It closed down voluntarily on March 18 and has now implemented precautions to prevent the spread of the corona virus. It has stationed staff throughout the buildings to ensure that customers keep a distance from one another. The police have also been on hand to monitor (DK) the long lines of customers waiting to enter the stores, and they report that people seem to understand the seriousness of the risk and are complying with the guidelines.