The Story:
On February 1, 2022, Denmark’s government announced that Covid-19, the pandemic that through three main variants has discombobulated the world for two years now, is no longer a “socially critical disease.” As a consequence, the Danish Health Authority now says, most pandemic related behavioral restrictions have been removed. In particular, Danes are no longer required to wear masks on public transportation or in shops.
Significance:
Søren Brostrøm, the head of the Health Authority, told Danish broadcaster TV2 that his attention was on the number of people in intensive care units, not on the number of infections. He said that number in ICUs had “fallen and fallen and is incredibly low.”
Another restriction that no longer is required is the use of a digital pass to enter nightclubs or to eat indoors in restaurants. [Eating outdoors has very little charm in Denmark in February.]
In Pill Form:
Denmark is ahead of the rest of the European Union in abandoning such behavioral restrictions, though some of the other EU nations are moving in the same direction. Perhaps the reason for the epidemiological good news that made this possible is that the rate of vaccination has been so high in the country.
