Coronavirus DK: Taking precautions as business resumes

Today the next phase of the lockdown exit process begins. Professional services and small service businesses can reopen. In many of them, such as hairdressers and physical therapists, it is impossible to avoid physical contact. Yesterday the Minister of Industry, Business and Financial Affairs held a press conference to present the guidelines it has set forth, along with the Health Authority, for minimizing the risk of infection (DK). These are the main principles: 1) Customers must be able to maintain two meters’ distance from one another in the lobby or waiting room. 2) Businesses must post guidelines on good hygiene and a warning that people with Covid-19 symptoms must remain home and they must make hand sanitizer readily available. 3) Employees should be scheduled in such a way that they do not work close to one another, by following staggered schedules or extending business hours. 4) Employees must observe strict rules of hygiene, washing their hands after contact with each customer, sanitizing points of contact on the premises, such as doorknobs, and washing fabrics at 80 degrees Celsius. 5) Employees should avoid sustained face-to-face contact with customers, for example by holding a preliminary conversation at two meters’ distance or by wearing a mask or visor.

Faulty protective equipment

One of the big issues for healthcare staff around the world is getting access to adequate personal protective equipment (PPE). While there is a great demand for products, prices are rising. But at the same time the quality of the PPE is unreliable (DK). The Danish Safety Technology Authority tests the products and has found that many of them must be discarded. For example, of the 20 million masks acquired, 5 million had to be thrown out. Some of the masks and visors fall apart, some do not cover the face correctly, and some don’t have the proper certification or otherwise do not protect against infection. According to Birgitte Nellemann, Purchasing Manager at the Mid-Jutland Region, one problem may be that the manufacturers in China have speeded up production and have not conducted thorough quality assurance.

Anders Kühnau, Chairperson of Mid-Jutland Region, says that Denmark may have higher standards than some other countries, which might want to use the discarded equipment. When asked whether he cold guarantee that the Region would get a refund for the defective equipment, he said, “It is difficult to guarantee anything at all.” The private company Force Technology works with the Safety Technology Authority to test the equipment. It reports that some of the masks do not screen out enough particles and some make it difficult to breathe. The equipment has sometimes been made by firms that have not produced PPE before. 

The Region has begun to ask for a sample of the products before an entire order arrives. Sometimes it finds that if a product is not acceptable at the desired level, it can be used for other purposes. For example, FFP3 masks are supposed to screen out 99 percent of particles, and FFP2 (aka KN95) are supposed to screen out 94 percent. If a shipment of FFP3 masks is not fully effective, it may be possible to use the masks for functions that normally require only FF2 masks.

Doctors are also open for business

People are making appointments with their GPs again (DK) after the prime minister and the head of the Danish Health Authority encouraged them to do so. Doctors had seen a sharp drop in appointments since the lockdown began. Some people with mild illnesses or chronic illnesses had been staying away either because they thought that the doctors were especially busy with Covid-19 patients or they wanted to avoid the risk of infection at doctors’ offices. Doctors’ offices must still follow strict rules for visiting patients, for example patients are screened by telephone and fewer of them can sit in a waiting room. Doctors expect that there may be an increase in the number of patients with Covid-19 symptoms now that segments of the economy are reopening.