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Corona passes and facemasks must return, insist experts following another 2021 record high number of infections

Ben Hamilton
November 5th, 2021


This article is more than 3 years old.

Increasing numbers underline need to give everyone a third injection

Still there, but slowing down a bit (photo: Pixabay)

The 2,598 corona infections, which set a record daily high for 2021 in Denmark yesterday, absolutely underlines the need to take fast action, Professor Eskild Petersen has told TV2.

Petersen is part of an expert group that made projections on Tuesday that the infection rate would soon climb over 2,000, but even he was surprised by Thursday’s figures.

Clearly, he said, the corona pass requirement for indoor venues, as well as the need to wear facemasks, needs to be reinforced as quickly as possible.

Support from health authority
Søren Brostrøm, the head of the Sundhedsstyrelsen health authority, recommended reintroducing the corona pass yesterday.

But Petersen is adamant that facemasks must return too: “After all, we won’t be able to vaccinate 4 million Danes with a third jab in two to three weeks.”

His expert group estimate the infection rate could otherwise rise to 4,500.

Most cases are unvaccinated
A recent Statens Serum Institut study estimates that between 15 and 20 percent of all infections occur among people fully vaccinated.

Furthermore, around 0.5 percent of all people who have been vaccinated in Denmark – the current rate is just over 75 percent of the country – have been infected.

But there have been very few cases of somebody with three injections being infected, or indeed somebody who had corona and was then months later vaccinated.


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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.”