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Corona closures continue: March 1 reopening … sounds more like April 1 reopening

Ben Hamilton
February 25th, 2021


This article is more than 3 years old.

Most of the outdoor cultural institutions won’t be admitting the public next Monday, and very few of the schools will be welcoming back students

The open air museum Frilandsmuseet will be among those not reopening next Monday (photo: Flickr/Benno Hansen)

The March 1 reopening is turning into a giant squib.

First, the cultural institutions confirmed they won’t be opening on Monday.

And now most of the schools in North and West Jutland, which are allowed to open up for graduating students (typically those aged 15-16 and 18-19), and on Bornholm, where all students are welcome to return, have said the same.

It would appear that neither have been given enough notice after being closed for more than two months, and that they are all still waiting for important guidelines.

If only the government’s task force of experts had been able to foresee that.

Copenhagen Zoo … Tivoli … Frilandsmuseet … forget it!
Copenhagen Zoo is among those that won’t be open on Monday. The association DAZA – ​​which represents all of the zoos, safari parks and aquariums in Denmark – has confirmed that none of its members are ready.

“Right now we are seeing how quickly we can get ready,” DAZA chair Helle Hegelund told TV2. “But we have not received the guidelines, so we need them before we can open. We hope that we can be ready by Thursday next week.”

New restrictions will require visitors to possess a negative coronavirus test taken within the last 72 hours. Indoor areas will be out of bounds, and the new guidelines might require other restrictions that were not in place last year.

Likewise, the outdoor museum Frilandsmuseet won’t be opening because it is in the middle of laying a thatched roof, while Tivoli has said it intends to open closer to Easter.

Guidelines missing on twice-weekly testing and parental consent
Graduating students are raring to return to their studies, but according to Thomas Thors, the mayor of Bornholm, and Claus Hjortdal, the chair of the Skolelederforeningen school leaders association, they may have to wait a little longer.

While the schools in North and West Jutland have received some guidelines, they have not received the crucial ones pertaining to students over the age of 12 needing to be tested twice a week, for which the schools will need parental consent.

“We are still waiting to see those guidelines, so I simply do not think it is possible to get ready for Monday morning,” Hjortdal told TV2. 

To make matters worse, all the schools in North and West Jutland have been on their winter break this week!

Thors, meanwhile, thinks Bornholm will probably manage to welcome back the students by Wednesday.


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”