A further eight people have been confirmed as having tested positive for coronavirus in Denmark, the country’s Patient Safety Authority (Styrelsen for Patientsikkerhed, DPSA) said in an update.
hat brings the total confirmed number of infections in Denmark to 23, including one case on the Faroe Islands.
The agency is in the process of tracing people who may have been in close contact with the new cases, the agency said via a statement on Thursday evening, in which it confirmed five of the eight most recent cases. Three further cases were added to the total on the DPSA website on Friday morning.
Persons who have been in close contact with confirmed infections are placed in home quarantine. 425 people are currently quarantined, according to DPSA’s latest update.
No further information has been released as to the age, gender or place of residence of the newly-infected individuals.
The first Dane to have been diagnosed has now been given a full bill of health, meanwhile, and can return home to his family, broadcaster TV2 reports.
“Now I’m free. I am simply healthy, so now I can go out,” said the man, Jakob Tage Ramlyng, who works for TV2.
Ramlyng became Denmark’s first confirmed case of coronavirus after returning from a skiing holiday in Northern Italy.
He briefly went into work after returning home, which resulted in 16 TV2 employees being placed in home quarantine.
“The patient [Ramlyng, ed.] has been symptom-free for more than 24 hours. He has been assessed by an experienced consultant in infectious disease, who finds him healthy and no longer infected with Covid19,” Peder Fabricius, a senior consultant doctor at Zealand University Hospital, told TV2.
Ramlyng’s wife and two children tested negative for coronavirus. He was initially quarantined with his family at his home in Roskilde, from where he spoke openly about his experience via social media. He later to another apartment so that his family’s quarantine period need not be extended.
22 further cases have since been reported since the first infection was confirmed in Denmark one week ago.
All previous cases in the country have so far been traced to travel abroad, but no information in this regard was provided relating to the five new cases on Thursday.
The Danish foreign ministry has updated its travel advice and now advises against all unnecessary travel to the four active outbreak regions in northern Italy: Emilia-Romagna, Lombardy, Piedmont and Veneto.
The ministry also advises against unnecessary travel to mainland China; the province of Gyeongbuk and the city of Daegu in South Korea; and all of Iran. All travel to Hubei province in China is advised against, regardless of the reason for the trip.
DPSA said it expects further cases to be confirmed in the coming days, including instances of infection between people in Denmark.
