Several residential areas in the Region of Southern Denmark are fighting against local outbreaks.
In the residential area Stengårdsvej in Esbjerg, one of the municipality’s cars drives around with a loudspeaker on the roof.
– May we just get your attention? We have covid infection in the area! it sounds in Jutland from the speaker.
It may sound like a scene from a science fiction movie, but it is today’s corona reality in the area, where the municipality has used new tools to stem local outbreaks.
For The Region of Southern Denmark is currently suffering from a spread of infection, reflected in the so-called incidence rate, which is almostmatches Capital Region.
In Esbjerg there are five schools, ten day care institutions and a high school closed due to high infection pressure, and in Vejle the basket rises again after previously succeeding in breaking the basket.
Fear of reopening
According to Stephanie Lose, President of the Regional Council of Region of Southern Denmark, it is coincidental thatthe region has growing infection.
– We are one region , which has a number of larger cities. We are in the situation that many of them are affected in their densely populated residential areas at once. These are Esbjerg, Kolding, Vejle and Odense. It does thatThe Region of Southern Denmark as a whole has a high incidence, she says.
Vejle’s mayor Jens Ejner Christensen (V) is annoyed that his municipality is once again experiencing an increase in infection.
– If we do not get a handle on the infection rates here in Vejle, then I fear that we will not be part of the rollout for the reopening, which the government is negotiating right now. And we really want to be a part of that, he says.
Text messages and ambassadors
In Vejle, for example, in the residential area Nørremarken, information campaigns and text messages have been launched to get more people to be tested.
But more measures are on the way, the mayor states.
– One of the things we did last week was that we, together with the Danish Agency for Patient Safety, were around knocking on doors. We will now do that this weekend instead, he says
We will also appoint local ‘ambassadors’ to persuade the residents to be tested.
Access to social security numbers of infected people
In Esbjerg, in addition to loudspeaker cars and flyers, text messages have been sent to everyone in the affected areas.
But they have also used a new agreement between the government and the National Association of Local Authorities, which means that corona-affected municipalities can have access to health data on infected people, says Mayor Jesper Frost Rasmussen.
– The most important tool we have at the moment is that we have gained direct access to social security numbers and names and addresses of those who are infected, and from tomorrow also on close contacts, so that we handheld can follow up. We can contact the infected every day, make sure that they isolate themselves, and make sure that their loved ones are also tested, says the mayor of Esbjerg.
– We have actually struggled to get that opportunity since November, and only last Friday has it finally been rolled out, and we might well have used something before, he says.
