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Denmark doubles COVID-19 vaccine contribution to developing countries

Christian Wenande
April 16th, 2021


This article is more than 3 years old.

The Development Ministry announces that another 50 million kroner will go to the international vaccine co-op COVAX

COVAX key in getting vaccines to developing countries (photo: UN)

According to the Foreign Ministry, Denmark is poised to double its COVID-19 vaccine contribution to developing countries.

To this end, the government has set aside another 50 million kroner for the international vaccine co-operation, COVAX.

“Denmark has a clear interest in the rest of the world gaining access to safe and secure COVID-19 vaccines as swiftly as possible,” said the development minister, Flemming Møller Mortensen.

“COVAX is a critical tool to ensure that, and that is why we will double down on our support. Only when the world around us is free of the pandemic will the threat to Denmark dissipate. No-one is safe until everyone is safe.”

Mortensen also revealed that the government was negotiating the terms of a fourth COVID-19 aid package.

READ ALSO: Denmark working to secure COVID-19 vaccines for the impoverished

COVAX is crucial 
This effort will focus on supporting the build-up of health sectors in developing countries to better assist them to tackle future health crises. 

The COVAX co-operation encompasses 191 countries – 99 of which are self-financing like Denmark, and 92 of which are classified as low-to-middle income countries.

COVAX expects to distribute 1.8 billion vaccine doses to the 92 countries, which will cover about 27 percent of their populations. 

Since the pandemic started last year, Denmark has given 1.4 billion kroner to developing countries and humanitarian crises via COVID-19 aid packages.


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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.”