Coronavirus DK: Recovered cases, protesters & dog test positive

Some persons who have recovered from COVID-19 are testing positive (DK) for the coronavirus. In a study at Aarhus University, around 20 percent of 200 persons tested still had the coronavirus four weeks after they had recovered from the illness. Martin Tolstrup, Lecturer in Infectious Diseases, made the study in order to determine whether the patients had antibodies against the illness and also tested them for the virus. “We are very surprised at the high number who are still positive,” he said. The patients no longer had symptoms, but the researchers do not know whether they are infectious or how to interpret the persistence of the positive results.

“I have reached out to several other researchers, but no one knows,” continues Tolstrup. “There are reports from abroad about a reactivation of the virus.” In South Korea, some recovered patients tested negative and later tested positive. Some of the patients in Tolstrup’s study had both antibodies and the virus. Tolstrup has not seen any indication that these patients are infectious, but others are conducting contact-tracing to see whether they have infected anyone recently.

But are they infectious?

Jens Lundgren, Professor of Infectious Disease Medicine at Rigshospital in Copenhagen, is not surprised by these results. “It can take up to four to six weeks before the PCR test [for the virus] tests negative. We do not expect that it is an infectious virus.” Lars Østergaard, Professor of Infectious Disease Medicine at Aarhus University, agrees but notes that it is not certain that recovered patients cannot infect others. “If they prove to be infectious, that of course raises new questions about how we contain the virus.”

Potential superspreader event

More people who attended the Black Lives Matter demonstration (DK) on June 7 have been found to be infected. At least three additional cases have been identified. Attendees had been warned of the risk of infection before the demonstration, in which 15,000 people participated, many standing very close together and chanting. After the demonstration, they were urged to undergo a test, but it is unknown how many have done so. BLM held smaller protest demonstrations in other Danish cities as well. Political demonstrations are exempt from the limit on the number of people who may gather together.

First Danish pet with coronavirus

Several days after reports of coronavirus infections at a mink farm in northern Jutland, the virus has been identified in a dog (DK) at the same farm. It is the first time a pet in Denmark is known to have been infected. The dog’s owner was instructed to treat the dog according to the same guidelines as the people on the farm. It must “avoid contact with other animals and people outside the household,” said Mogens Jensen, Minister of Environment and Food. The Ministry does not believe that the dog will spread the infection, “but we must keep it away from sick people in the family,” said Peter K. Embarek, an expert in food-borne illness outbreaks. 

Coronavirus DK: Stopping infections at protests and mink farms

Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke says that the health authorities will issue guidelines for large political demonstrations (DK) in order to avoid the spread of the coronavirus. At least one person who attended the Black Lives Matter demonstration on June 7, along with 15,000 others, has tested positive, and other people who were part of the closely packed crowd are urged to be tested. 

Event arrangers “will get a very concrete evaluation from the Danish Patient Safety Authority on how they should conduct the demonstration purely from a healthcare perspective,” said Heunicke. He stressed that this measure will not abridge people’s constitutional right to stage political demonstrations, which are the only exceptions allowed to the restrictions on the number of people who may attend gatherings. On June 8 the limit on gatherings was raised from ten to 50.

More requests for tests

Since Heunicke urged demonstration participants to be tested, the number of referrals for tests has risen (DK). The day after, there were 400 more bookings than usual. “I thought it was an opportunity to take responsibility for what I did and to see whether or not I have been infected,” said one person at the Test Center, who had worn a face mask and tried to keep a distance from other demonstrators. Despite the rise in bookings for the tests in the capital region, the testing is still below capacity.

Flashmob with precautions

BLM was to hold another demonstration (DK) on Thursday, and the spokesperson for the organization, Bwalya Sørensen, says that it would use special measures to prevent the spread of the virus. It bought 250 face masks, it had lots of sanitizer, and it would divide participants up into groups of 50 or fewer. “We have chosen a flashmob instead of a demonstration,” said Sørensen. “We have done it simply to keep the number of participants down.” More than 100 people have signed up for the event. 

After the demonstration on June 7, Sørensen received criticism for issuing restrictions on the behavior of white people at the event. The Ritzau news agency wanted to ask her whether the guidelines would also apply at the new demonstration, but she hung up the phone.

Virus infiltrates key export product

A coronavirus outbreak has been identified in a new location, a mink farm in northern Jutland (DK). The Danish Veterinary and Food Administration has tested 34 mink and placed restrictions on the farm. The herd in question will be slaughtered, and the farm will be quarantined. Mink breeding is an important industry in Denmark, which is the largest mink breeder in the world, with almost 1,400 mink farms.

This is the first time the coronavirus has been discovered at one of them. The infection probably came from an employee or the owner the farm, say the authorities.There were coronavirus outbreaks at two mink farms in the Netherlands in April. 

“We will be completely certain that we do all that we can to limit the infection,” said Mogens Jensen, Minister of Environment and Food, “also among mink.” The ministry is investigating how the infection arose and preparing a testing strategy for other mink farms in the region, among other measures. Healthcare researchers are not worried (DK) that the infection will spread from mink to people and say that pet owners shouldn’t be afraid that their dogs and cats will make them sick.

Coronavirus DK: Getting used to micro-outbreaks

As I’ve reported before, even though the COVID-19 epidemic is under control in Denmark and the number of new infections and deaths continue to decline, the danger of the infection spreading is not gone. There have been at least three episodes recently that concern the health authorities and the crisis task force.

Nursing home in remote region

Until last week, northern Jutland was one of the safest places in the country if you wanted to stay out of the way of the coronavirus. But now, in the town of Hjørring, at least 29 residents at a nursing home (DK) and a total of 50 in the municipality have been identified as infected. Two schools and one company have also identified infections. The municipality is working to limit the outbreak. 

All health care staff and nursing home residents in the municipality will be tested, and staff at the nursing home where the outbreak occurred will be tested every week. Visits to the nursing home have been stopped temporarily. The classes with infected pupils have been dismissed for the last few weeks of the school year, and the employees at the company, Novo Nordisk, have been sent home. The municipality has been praised by researchers for its strategy to contain the outbreak. “Hjørring will be a litmus test” for responding to new outbreaks, says Søren Ris Paludan, Professor of Virology at Aarhus University. “The big task ahead of us is to minimize the infection while keeping society open.”

BLM demonstration, as predicted

According to he Danish Patient Safety Authority, which is in charge of contact tracing, at least one person at the Black Lives Matter demonstration (DK) on June 7 has been identified as infected with the coronavirus. Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke has asked everyone who attended, some 15,000 people, to get tested, even if they do not have symptoms. Many people stood very close together, few of them wearing face masks, and it is a classic situation that is vulnerable to superspreaders. The attendees had already been encouraged to be tested, and some have done so. Now all of them are urged to be tested again because the infection sometimes does not manifest itself for several days. There were also smaller demonstrations in other cities in Denmark during the same week.

Import from South Asian hotspot

The Patient Safety Authority reported that six passengers on a flight from Pakistan (DK) to Copenhagen on June 6 were infected. At least four of them were infectious during the flight, and the Authority is in the process of tracing their contacts and all the passengers who sat close to them. Travelers from countries other than Germany, Norway and Iceland are urged to undergo quarantine for 14 days after their arrival. 

“It may be several days from the time a person is infected to the time he or she tests positive, and the person can infect others in that period,” says Anette Lykke Petri of the Authority. The week before, 20 persons of Pakistani ancestry in a single municipality were found to be infected, and since then nine others have been identified. The Authority cannot comment on the possible relation between the passengers and the earlier cases.

We will have to live with these “micro-outbreaks” (DK) for some time, says Paludan, and if we can react quickly and contain them, we won’t need to roll back the reopening. We must still observe social distancing guidelines, he adds, and be especially careful if the infection comes into our proximity.

Floyd protests DK: BLM’s problematic “antiracist” policies

As noted a few days ago, after the demonstration to protest racism and police brutality in the US last Sunday, many people wondered that the large crowd had ignored the precautions (DK) against the coronavirus. Regarding the debate about the risk (DK) of the infection spreading at the demonstration, Bwalya Søren, the spokesperson for Black Lives Matter Denmark, which arranged the protest, asked, “Are you so afraid that black people can get a little bit of rights?"

Since then, other questions have arisen about  BLM Denmark's management of the demonstration. When Sørensen spoke to the 15,000 people gathered in front of the Parliament building, she told the white attendees to move out of the way and let the blacks stand in front of the banners. 

Before the event, BLM Denmark had posted a series of rules on Instagram about “Protest etiquette for white folks” (DK). The rules state that whites should not talk to the press, they should not start chants, and they should not join in certain chants. For example, they should not chant, “I can’t breathe” because “Being choked and shot are not things happening to white folks in the same way as they are to black folks. . . . The black power fist falls under this too. These . . . are not for appropriation.”

Defense of segregation and unreported fundraising 

Making special rules for whites at the demonstration strikes some people as discriminatory itself and against the basic principle of the protest for equality. “I’m deeply shocked, and I think it is very un-Danish," said journalist Jeppe Søe. "It argues against its own cause.” When asked about that reaction, Bwalya Sørensen responded, “If you are dissatisfied . . . you should stay home. It is white supremacy.” 

Later, in a radio interview, Sørensen was asked about BLM's fundraising for the event. She acknowledged that the organization had not registered the money it had collected (DK) with the Danish Fundraising Board, that donors could not see what the money was being used for, and that the collection was therefore illegal. “But should I stop a movement to protest about George Floyd because I have to follow some rules?” she said. “Have you heard of civil disobedience?” she asked the interviewer and emphasized that the Danish government must say something about the killings in the USA.

Systematic white supremacy

Problems also arose planning a demonstration (DK) on Tuesday in Aalborg, a smaller city in northern Jutland. Other groups had arranged a demonstration to support the one planned by BLM – high school students, day-care staff students and the local office of Amnesty International. BLM objected that these groups planned to hold a demonstration in Aalborg on the same day that BLM wanted to hold one. Amnesty had already received permission to hold the demonstration before it knew that BLM also wanted to on the same day. It invited  Sørensen to speak at its demonstration and asked whether BLM could postpone its demonstration until the day after. 

Sørensen was insulted by the offer: “And so white people will drive us away. It is ‘white supremacy,’ racism and misogynistic garbage, to put it mildly. . . . That man is racist,” she said of Hans Hyttel, the Aalborg representative of Amnesty International. When asked what Hyttel had said, Sørensen replied, “Why should all of you at B.T. [the newspaper] be white? How many people of color are employed there? Why should you kidnap the agenda?”

Amnesty International canceled its planned demonstration and expressed its support for the BLM demonstration.

A passionate activist

Bwalya Sørensen, who is 53, came to Denmark from Zambia 34 years ago. She has been active in protest movements (DK) since the refugee and migrant crisis in Europe in 2015. She has campaigned for various causes, for example against poverty, for LGBT+ rights and in the debate on rape laws. Perhaps the first time she came to prominence was in a demonstration against the anti-Islamist Pegida organization at a train station in 2017. She can be seen protesting against the “Nazi pigs!” in this video (DK).

Coronavirus DK: Backlash against packed demonstration

After seeing news reports and video clips of thousands of demonstrators crowded together on Sunday to protest against racism and police brutality in the US, many people reacted with outrage and criticism (DK). In comment fields and on social media, they expressed surprise that so many were indifferent to the risks they ran for both themselves and others. Government officials and healthcare researchers were also concerned. 

“After we kept the elderly in nursing homes isolated, people have gone bankrupt, children have not been in school, 15,000 people run out and rub against one another just when we are about to get control of the infections. IT IS INSANE,” tweeted former Minister of Justice Søren Pind. 

“Grotesque!” concurred Kristian Thulesen Dahl (DK) from the Danish People’s Party. “I think it’s unbelievable that people were not able to keep their distance,” said Karsten Hønge, political spokesperson for the Socialist People’s Party, who attended the demonstration himself.

On Facebook (DK), people wrote that they were angry that while they unable to visit sick relatives and there was a strict limit on how many could attend the funeral of an old friend, there were apparently no rules or common sense at the demonstration. “It shows a lack of respect.” 

“‘But what about corona?’ asked my four-year-old child when she watched the news,” a parent tweeted (DK). “She is much wiser than about 15,000 grown-ups.”

Quarantine yourself and get tested

Jesper Petersen, political spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said that the participants should be tested for the coronavirus. People were within their rights to exercise their freedom of assembly for a political purpose and there was no law that said they had to be tested, Petersen added, but they might as well use the testing capacity that has been set up and is available to everyone.

“If you know someone who is in a high-risk group, you should be responsible and go into quarantine in order to make sure that you haven’t become infected,” said Thea Kølsen Fischer, head of research at North Zealand Hospital, warning that such events were prime occasions for superspreading. MP Rosa Lund from the Red-Green Party, who took part in the demonstration, said she will be tested.

Health minister less concerned

Minister of Health Magnus Heunicke (DK), on the other hand, did not think that everyone necessarily needed to be tested. “It depends on who you are in contact with on a daily basis and what you have done at this demonstration. . . . If you have kept your distance from others and been calm, then you should just be aware of symptoms.”

Leaders of Black Lives Matter Denmark, which arranged the event, did not respond to inquiries from reporters. One of the speakers at the gathering, Roger Courage Matthisen, said that the organization encouraged demonstrators to wear face masks and practice social distancing. “Afterward, it is up to citizens to take responsibility for how they will behave at this demonstration.” The organization is planning to hold demonstrations in two more cities, and more than 2,000 people have indicated that they will attend. 

Anyone can register for a test at coronaprover.dk (DK). The Health Authority recommends that people be tested on the fourth and sixth days after they have been exposed to a potential risk of infection.

(Coronavirus DK will be back on Thursday. Stay safe.)