The traditional May Day gatherings were canceled and the speeches by left-wing leaders were sent remotely. Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen of the Social Democrats held her speech at the Workers Museum in Copehagen and used the occasion to announce the government’s first large employment project (DK). It will spend around DKK 4.5 billion ($650 million) to renovate subsidized housing units. The project will be “fair, economically sensible, and green,” said Frederiksen. It will improve living conditions for renters, provide jobs for people who have lost them during the crisis, and bring the buildings up to environmentally sound standards, for example by replacing old oil furnaces. The initiative is to be seen as signalling a shift in focus from healthcare issues to economic issues as well as a shift to more sustainable infrastructure projects. It will begin before the end of the year.
Frederiksen summed up the measures taken during the crisis to support employees and businesses. Some 150,000 people have received wage compensation and avoided being laid off, and 25,000 businesses have received aid. In the question and answer period after the speech, Frederiksen said that she was concerned about the increase in the reproduction number (R0) to 0.9 since the first phase of the reopening but that she expected the second phase to begin as planned (DK) on May 10. Negotiations with the other parties on the next steps of the exit from lockdown restrictions continue.
Antifa silenced, nursing home residents to get visits
Frederiksen also noted with a smile that the room was very quiet. That was a reference to the traditional May Day gathering last year in Copenhagen’s largest park, when she had been drowned out by protesters from the Autonomist Movement, the local version of Antifa. Before the corona virus outbreak, she had declined to appear at the gathering this year.
Parliament has also reached a broad agreement on an aid package to help nursing home residents (DK) and other elderly people return to more normal conditions. The plan, which will cost DKK 165 million ($24 million), was approved by all the parliamentary parties except for the Liberal Party, which believed it did not go far enough. It is intended to reestablish the standard service level for cleaning and cultural activities and to redress loneliness and anxiety among the elderly who have been isolated, including those with dementia, by promoting volunteer activities, for example. A key element of the plan is setting up outdoor facilities where the elderly can receive visits from their families while minimizing the risk of infection.
Infection-risk rankings from libraries to discos
A new factor in the negotiations that came to light yesterday is a confidential memorandum sent to MPs by SSI, the agency responsible for preparedness against infectious diseases. It contained an extensive list of institutions and organizations according to their risk levels (DK) for Parliament to use in determining the next steps in the reopening of the economy on May 10. In the low-risk category are outdoor eating facilities, libraries, museums and outdoor zoos. In the medium-risk category are higher educational institutions, theaters, restaurants, churches, shopping centers, workplaces where social distancing is possible, and outdoor sports facilities. High-risk locations include middle schools and high schools, bars and concert halls. In the very-high-risk category are boarding schools, fitness centers, nightclubs, and (indoor) visits to nursing homes and hospitals.
The SSI noted that the ranking was “uncertain and simplistic” and that the organizations selected for reopening should depend on the degree of spread of the virus on May 10 and on the other organizations that are allowed to open at the same time. The decision will be made by the government in consultation with the other political parties, not the SSI or the Health Ministry.
Testing facilities are being set up (DK) in Fælledparken, Copenhagen’s largest park. They consist of a large complex of tents with three stations for testing people on foot and one drive-in station. There had been no announcement of this measure before police began erecting the tents, installing electrical cables and water pipes, setting up signs and rerouting traffic. The initiative was ordered by NOST, Denmark’s agency for coordinating activities during crises. It is part of the administration’s new testing policy. The facilities in Fælledparken are a prototype that will be copied afterward in other parts of the country.
Scaling up the data
On Friday, the administration announced a new, comprehensive testing strategy (DK). As I wrote yesterday, the policy on testing has changed a few times and officials from the Health Authority and the Danish Regions have expressed a desire to test significantly more people than were being tested, at least twice as many. The WHO has urged Denmark to increase its testing. The testing will now include a representative sample of the population. Thus far it has been done mainly on people with severe symptoms. With the new policy, it will also be done on people without symptoms.
According to Allan Randrup Thomsen, Professor of Experimental Virology at University of Copenhagen, this will show the breakdown into people who are sick and hospitalized, people who are sick but not hospitalized, people who have been infected but are not sick, and people who have not been infected. That information will be important for the administration’s decisions on reopening parts of society and the economy. It would have been useful to have that information now, when businesses are resuming activities, as a baseline, said Thomsen.
Virtual solidarity
Fælledparken is also the place where the largest of the International Workers’ Day gatherings take places on May 1. The Danish Trade Union Confederation recently announced that it was canceling this year’s event because of the danger of infection with the corona virus. The Confederation has now announced that the event will be held after all, by livestream on Facebook (DK). Lizette Risgaard, the chairperson of the Confederation, said that these times make it clear that we should be more attentive to those who have the least and must make greater demands on politicians. The event will last one hour. A number of well-known musicians will perform, and Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has been invited to hold a speech. This will be the 130th year that the gathering has been held in Denmark. The tradition has been broken only once, in 1940, when Germany began the Occupation.
The tents for testing are reminiscent of those that are set up in Fælledparken every year for the DHL Relay Race, which draws thousands of participants. Today, Sunday, April 19, a “virtual race” called “Denmark Runs” (DK) will be held. It is a race that complies with social distancing rules. Participants will not run on the same route. They will each choose their own route, but they will run at the same time, 11:00 a.m. They can register online to run or walk either 5 km, 10 km or 21.1 km (a half-marathon). They are urged to wear the Danish colors, red and white, along with a number tags they can download and pin on their shirts. The event will be livestreamed, so the runners can follow along with others on their phones – as long as they remember to keep one eye on the traffic.
