Coronavirus DK: Comprehensive reopening plan

Unlike some of the larger Western European countries, Denmark has not been hit by a third wave of Covid-19 cases. The country is planning a full reopening by the end of May.

Update on the pandemic in Denmark:

• Infections have been rising slowly (DK) but steadily in the past month. Now they are around 600-700 per day.
• Hospitalizations ( approx. 200), ICU cases (40), and deaths (under 5 per day) have remained low in the same period.
• Deaths per million stand at 418, in comparison with the US (1,668), the UK (1,874), Sweden (1,135), and Norway (122).
• Testing has increased steadily to 180,000 per day. The positive ratio is 0.38%. The reproduction number has risen steadily this year from 0.7 to 1.1 earlier this month.
• Vaccinations have been delayed. 11.7% of the population has gotten the first dose, and 6.2% has gotten two doses. Large shipments are expected in April.

The unwanted vaccine. Photo: DADO RUVIC © Scanpix.

Return to normal?

Last week Parliament announced a comprehensive plan to relax restrictions (DK) over a six-week period beginning on April 6, in this order: the rest of schools and other educational institutions for part-time physical attendance; stores and shopping centers; outdoor service at restaurants; theaters, concert halls, and indoor service at restaurants; sports and other recreational activities. If the pandemic flares up again, the government reserves the right to postpone measures and implement local restrictions.

Some researchers warn that the reopening will cause cases to double. Nine cases of the Brazilian variant, P1 (DK), have been found recently, and authorities worry that it may be more infectious and less responsive to the vaccine than others. 

The suspension of the AstraZeneca vaccine (DK) has been extended an additional three weeks, until April 15. Despite the European Medicines Agency’s recommendation to resume vaccinations, the Danish Health Authority says it needs more time to investigate the risk of blood clots. 

Men in Orange
A few lockdown protestors from the Men in Black movement have been given extraordinarily long sentences (DK) on the basis of section 81d of the criminal code on “crimes related to the Covid-19 epidemic.” These include the woman who urged protestors to “smash the city in a non-violent way” before a riot that resulted in injuries to several police officers. Other protestors have been charged for actions during the demonstrations, including the man who burned a photo of Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in effigy on a poster carrying the slogan “She must be and will be put down” (that is, euthanized, an allusion to the culling of large numbers of mink in Denmark last month). Some of the left-wing parties who voted for section 81d are now saying that the proposed sentences are unduly harsh.

Coronavirus DK: Riots, Danish style

Perhaps inspired by the MAGA mob that stormed the US Capitol building, a Danish group calling itself “Men in Black” held protest demonstrations in Copenhagen (DK) and Aalborg yesterday evening. The demonstrations had been announced in advance and were therefore legal. Demonstrations are the only exception to the limit on public gatherings. Several hundred people - indeed mostly attired in black, both guys and gals - met up at the Copenhagen City Hall Plaza around 7 p.m. to listen to speakers who led them in chants: “Freedom for Denmark! We have had enough!” 

The purpose of event was apparently to complain about lockdown restrictions, which have recently been tightened in Denmark, as they have nearly everywhere else. I say “apparently” because that was how it was described by more than one journalist on the scene. The police also reported that they recognized some figures from the “hooligan scene,” that is, soccer fans who fight with supporters of rival teams. 

Demonstrators at CPH City Hall Plaza. Photo: Jonas Moestrup / TV 2

At various times, the speakers expressed objections to the mask requirement and other restrictions, warned that the vaccine is dangerous, and asserted that the coronavirus crisis was a hoax (DK): “We are mad, we are tired, and we are about to go crazy. Where is that virus?” Individual protestors interviewed advocated the theory of a worldwide conspiracy led by Bill Gates and the pharma industry, claiming also that the Danish state had engineered the bankruptcy of small shops so that it could take them over for financial gain. In recent months there have been a few other demonstrations against restrictions, which have all been peaceful. 

“Smash the city in a non-violent way”
In the beginning, the crowd was content to light torches and listen to its leaders, who urged them on with a distinctly Danish moderation: “Are you ready to smash the city in a non-violent way?” The crowd might have had trouble interpreting that exhortation, perhaps unique in the history of insurrectionary war cries. They began shooting fireworks (which are legal only around New Year’s Eve), throwing beer bottles, and then marching down Strøget, the main pedestrian street in the commercial district. 

The police were well prepared for them, however. Vans full of them were waiting on Strøget with their batons drawn, and they drove the crowd back to City Hall Plaza. They announced over loudspeakers that the demonstration was over and people should disperse, “in the name of the Queen and the Law.” The crowd broke up into smaller groups and headed down side streets, with much confusion, taunting, and yelling. There seemed to be little direct fighting between the factions, although the demonstrators shot fireworks at police vans. 

Quick and painless
The demonstrators continued into the Nørrebro district, with the police following close after. The police arrested several people for fireworks violations, resisting arrest, and attacking officers. Smaller groups of up to one hundred coalesced at a few locations, and there were low-key confrontations. But by around 9:30 p.m., activity had quieted down and the police announced that it was “slowly putting the city to bed.”

The demonstrations in Aalborg were smaller and were dispersed even more quickly. A total of 23 people were arrested. No one was reported injured in either city. You can see several brief video clips at the links.

Coronavirus DK: Reclaiming our freedom

A demonstration against lockdown restrictions (DK) has finally come to Denmark. On Saturday, several hundred people gathered in front of Copenhagen City Hall to protest the loss of their constitutional rights without a reasonable justification on healthcare grounds. Some four hundred people had signed up for the event on Facebook labelled “#TogetherforFreedom.” They listened to rock music and brandished posters with slogans such as “COVID-19 is not at all dangerous.” “The public has not at any time seen documentation that this is an extraordinary crisis situation,” said the arrangers’ statement.

Government secrecy

“These are political decisions, and we want to call attention to the legitimacy of being critical and asking questions,” said Marie Jensen, one of the persons behind the event. “The Health Authority has not recommended the interventions that the government has made. We don’t know what the Health Authority would have recommended, and we think that we haven’t gotten an answer to that.” Another of the arrangers is the doctor Vibeke Manniche, who in several blog posts has criticized the government’s actions as “corona hysteria” (DK).

It is clear from video recordings of the event that more than ten persons gathered close “together” at the site, and this would normally be a violation of rule on congregating. But the police did not react and issue fines, as they have done elsewhere, because the ban does not apply to political demonstrations.When asked whether the participants didn’t have an obligation to follow the government’s recommendations, such as keeping a distance of at least one meter from one another in order to prevent the spread of the virus, Jensen answered, “If it was very dangerous, then there would be prohibition against it. And as long as there isn’t a ban, we have a right to do it.”

Growing European movement

The demonstration appeared to be peaceful, with none of the guns or death threats that have cropped up in American protests. There was surprisingly little coverage of it by Danish news sources. There have been similar demonstrations in several cities in Germany recently, and some of them have turned violent. Many of the demonstrators there and in London appear to endorse the theories that the virus was created in a lab by a big pharma company and/or that it is being used in a plot to enforce compulsory vaccination. 

There were also large gatherings in Norway (DK) yesterday in defiance of that country’s limit on gatherings, but they appeared not to be protests against pandemic restrictions as much as the traditional parties on the eve of the Norway’s Constitution Day. Police reported that there were up to 1,000 students gathered at Frogner Park and that they did not have the capacity to intervene with measures to mitigate the spread of the virus. Official events celebrating Constitution Day have been cancelled or limited in scope. The epidemic is much more limited in Norway than in Denmark, where it is also low from an international perspective.

Lockdown exit too slow

The timing of the demonstration in Denmark is somewhat ironic. Denmark has never issued strict stay-at-home orders or required people to wear masks in public. It is in the midst of phase 2 of the relaxation of restrictions. Last week shopping centers reopened and the guideline on social distancing was reduced from two meters to one meter. Tomorrow restaurants, libraries and other institutions, churches and middle schools can reopen. One of the few restrictions left to protest is the one on large gatherings at events such as concerts, theaters and sporting events – with the exception of political demonstrations.