Family of corona infected in Denmark must move freely in the community. It only happens in Denmark, Sweden and Belgium.
Denmark, Sweden and the hard-hit Belgium are the only countries in Western Europe where spouses and others living with coronas infected are allowed to move out into the community.
That’s what Politiken writes on Wednesday.
A survey conducted by Politiken mainly on the basis of data collected by the World Health Organization (WHO) European Office shows that 19 out of 22 countries require quarantine close contacts of the infected. In most countries, the quarantine is valid for 14 days.
The quarantine is recommended by the WHO and the European Center for Disease Control, ECDC.
This is because, among other things, almost half of the infection is transmitted before the patient even gets symptoms and thus discovers that he or she can infect others.
By keeping family and other close contacts at home until they know if they are infected, authorities are preventing them from carrying the infection with them into the community.
Three tests every two days
But the National Board of Health’s new guidelines, published yesterday, contain, instead of quarantine, an initiative that none of the other countries in the Policy statement uses.
The Board will offer to test the infected contacts’ close contacts three times at two day intervals to catch those who may have been infected.
Quarantine can be difficult to comply with for everyone. Therefore, it is an appropriate solution to use tests of the close contacts instead, says Center Manager at the National Board of Health Helene Probst to Politiken.
She points out that close contact tests are cited by both the European Commission and the European Disease Agency, ECDC.
One of the consequences of the National Board of Health guidelines is that spouses of infected persons must continue to work. Even if the job, for example, is a school teacher or educator.
