Coronavirus DK: Disappearing jobs, equipment and ice

Statistics Denmark reports that 87,000 jobs disappeared (DK) in the spring. “That is an insane number,” says Las Olsen, Chief Economist at Danske Bank. “We’ve never seen anything like it before.” It reverses all the employment growth since late 2017. The worst hit sectors are commerce and transport, which together accounted for half of the decline. Next come culture, leisure and other services, which experienced the largest percentage drop. The figures are rather uncertain, however, and actually higher, says Olsen, because people who are receiving wage compensation are not included.

Selective rebound expected
The decline is not as large as when 200,000 lost their jobs during the financial crisis, but it has taken place much more quickly. On the other hand, the recovery should also come faster as businesses and other organizations reopen. Certain industries, such as hospitality and entertainment, will not recover for a couple of years, however, and some people will need to shift to other fields in order to find work, concludes Olsen.

Disappearing PPE
Something else has vanished in large volumes since March – personal protective equipment. The police have registered 29 cases of sanitizer, face masks and gloves being stolen (DK) from hospitals, nursing homes and shops since March, and they treat them very seriously: “We did it especially in the start, because at that point we were in an acute situation where it was possible Denmark would run out of protective equipment,” said Søren Enevoldsen, deputy inspector with the National Investigatory Center. These crimes have received special attention because in April Parliament passed a bill that made the punishment for offenses related to the coronavirus epidemic four times as high as usual.

Mobile supply cabinets are a target for PPE thieves. Photo: (C) DR Nyheder.

This meant that someone who steals, say, DKK 10,000 ($1,500) worth of supplies from a hospital could get the same sentence as someone charged with assault with a knife. The reasoning is that both actions could put someone’s life in danger. At one point, one quarter of nursing home employees were reporting a shortage of PPE. A man who committed theft from a hospital, for example, was sentenced to four months in prison. Few offenders have been sentenced, though, because many of the arrests took place before the increased penalty went into effect. 

Glaciers disappearing, but Greenland will remain
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo came to Copenhagen on Wednesday and assured the nation that the US is ready to fight in the Arctic for the people of Denmark. “We have all been a little bit naïve to watch not only the Russians but also the Chinese interests there become more and more aggressive.” As the glaciers in the Arctic melt, more opportunities for military patrolling as well as trade open up. One month ago, the US opened a new consulate in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and made a commitment to invest in the strategically important region.

Pompeo affirmed that Denmark continues to be one of America’s closest allies: “We are two nations that are both robust democracies.” On that topic, he didn't mention his boss’s refusal to say that he would abide by the presidential election results in November. On the positive side, neither did he repeat Trump’s attempt to buy the autonomous territory.

Coronavirus DK: The hazards of hand sanitizer

Since the lockdown was announced on March 11, the number of calls to the central “Poison Hotline” (DK) about hand sanitizer have been five times as high as usual. Most of them concern people who have gotten the alcohol-based liquid splashed in their eyes, and the rest are cases where someone has drunk it. About half of the latter involve children under the age of five. So far, there haven’t been any cases of serious poisoning of children, though, because the taste is bad enough to make them stop drinking it. “But there are some who deliberately consume large amounts, but those are adults with other problems,” says Paul Frost, head doctor at Bispebjerg Hospital who works on the Poison Hotline.

No good deed goes unpunished

The dangers of mistakenly drinking hand sanitizer have had unfortunate consequences for a business that tried to help out during the crisis. When the lockdown took effect, the Wish juice producer from the island of Lolland decided to repurpose its equipment to make sanitizer. Now the Danish Environmental Protection Agency has ordered that the company’s sanitizer be recalled (DK) because it can be mistaken for something consumable. The company stands to lose DKK 2 million USD 300,000) from the recall.

Wish juice and sanitizer (håndsprit). Photo: TV2 News.

“Other companies were able to make a different package with clear labeling and child-protection features,” says Kim Holm Boesen of the EPA. The owners of the company, Allan and Mette Feldt, say that no one has drunk the sanitizer because they thought it was juice. They explain that they would have used different packaging if it hadn’t been a crisis situation but they believe the packaging was adequate. The EPA concedes that no one has been injured from drinking the sanitizer but explains that it has received several referrals from consumers who are worried about the packaging.

Appeal to the court of social media

“It is heartrending, and we feel that we are being punished for being socially conscientious and ready to adjust to the situation,” says Mette Feldt. The Feldts do not intend to comply with the EPA’s order to issue a recall letter to the retail businesses that have bought the sanitizer. Allan Feldt hopes “that the government will say that it’s unfair that we and others who have adjusted our production should be stuck with the bill afterwards.”

The Feldts have shared their frustration with the order on Facebook and have received support from several right-wing politicians (DK) who argue that the Minister of the Environment should give the company dispensation from the packaging rules because of the emergency situation. The couple has reputedly made a fortune from selling Aqua d’Or mineral water.

Worthless or worse

The heavy demand for sanitizer during the epidemic has led to an increase in imports as well as production by beverage companies. The EPA, working with Customs, has inspected 520 tons of hand sanitizer at the border (DK) and rejected 19 tons, some of it because of insufficient labeling and some because it contained no alcohol. Around half of the faulty imports were sent back to their country of origin and half of them were destroyed because they were considered dangerous.