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Epidemic Commission reviewing the situation: but is now the time to get your knickers in a twist?
Ben Hamilton
December 16th, 2021
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This article is more than 4 years old.
Many people don’t have symptoms, reports DR, but is this necessarily a bad thing?
More novelty facemasks required this Christmas (photo: Pixabay/MirceaIancu)
A DR headline reports that 40.5 percent of all corona infections come without symptoms – like that’s a bad thing.
Of course, it is bad news for the daily infection rate, which again saw a new record yesterday afternoon, when 8,377 cases were confirmed over the previous 24 hours.
But the whole point of getting vaccinated, and getting a booster, is to ensure we don’t get unwell, surely. A third jab, according to studies, will reduce the chances of you experiencing symptoms from 50 to 25 percent.
DR’s headline confirms that corona is making fewer people unwell. And besides, it’s the result of a Chinese study based on the entire corona outbreak, and we’ve always known that many young people aren’t affected at all.
Omicron picking up speed
Analysis from South Africa and the UK already suggests that the Omicron variant, which is picking up speed in Denmark with 1,512 fresh cases yesterday to take its total to 6,047, is not as lethal as the Delta strain.
But it’s certainly more infectious, and the authorities are keen to stop it spreading quickly across the nation. The truth, though, is that this battle is probably already lost.
Experts tell DR that more restrictions are needed before Christmas, but none of them have many good suggestions — banning alcohol sales in public, like in Norway, is one possible suggestion, along with reintroducing gathering limits.
And let’s not forget that the government has already taken decisive action this past weekend, when it freed the way for all over-40s to get a third jab by the end of the year.
Hospitalisations continue to grow
Perhaps more critical than the daily infection rate is the number of hospitalisations, and this continues to grow.
The current figure of 508 is the highest since February, but it is still a long way short of the January 4 peak of 964 and the 900 ballpark figure that puts the healthcare system under unbearable strain.
A bit like Fagin, the Epidemic Commission is reviewing the situation, and more restrictions could be imminent.
But is there a danger that the country is getting its knickers in a twist for no good reason about the high infection rate.
After all, Denmark has one of the biggest testing capacities in the world, testing 10-20 times more people (per capita) than most other countries.
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