Due to coronavirus, the guard parade at Amalienborg is suspended and 750 guards are not allowed to leave the barracks.
Usually one can set his watch after that. The guard parade from the Royal Life Guard. Every morning at 28 minutes past 11, rows of blue pants and black bearskin hats swing out on Gothersgade in Copenhagen.
Here the sound of marching guard boots, commands and the tambourine corps mixes and drums with traffic on the way to Amalienborg Castle Square.
This has been the case since the Royal Life Guard resumed guard at the royal castles following a temporary interruption during World War II and the German occupation.
But not anymore. Now the guard parade and shift at Amalienborg Palace Square has been suspended. Instead, the guards are kept on guard in a blue bus.
Exercises, ceremonies and orchestral music at Amalienborg are temporarily canceled.
Due to the risk of coronavirus and the disease Covid-19. For the sake of both the Royal Life Guard and the spectators.
Partly the gardens are very close, and partly the parade always attracts many people who will be very close. In order to avoid these two possibilities for infection, it was decided to run the guard parade (in bus, ed.) So far, the Defense Command states.
Guard Parade: Canceled so far
It has happened before that the guard parade has been driven to Amalienborg in buses. Such as. during the Copenhagen Marathon and other events blocking the guard’s route through the city.
However, according to DR Nyheter’s information, it has not been seen since the occupation that both the guard parade through the city as well as the guard shift at Amalienborg Castle Square have been canceled for a long time.
We have tried before to change the guard without a ceremonial. But introducing it firmly for a period of time is a significant change compared to what we usually use, says Colonel Mads Rahbek, head of the Royal Life Guard.
Although the sun shone from a cloudless sky on Saturday, the cobblestones at Amalienborg Castle Square lay largely at peace. Only a few people had found their way to the castle square, where the crowd was usually flocked.
While the fresh team of guards replaced the night’s guard, a young woman handed a plastic bag to the ordinance at the blue bus. “It’s pure underwear,” she explained, and asked him to hand it over to an unnamed garder. There is a specific reason for that.
750 conscripts are not allowed to leave barracks
Because of the coronavirus, the Livgarden’s around 750 conscripts are banned from leaving their barracks. Indefinitely.
They are not allowed to go home on weekends, walk around town or stroll to Netto to buy a soda. If they do, the consequence is sanctions from the military penal code.
Worst case is that it can spread to the entire force if only one is infected. Then in the end we cannot maintain the guard at the royal castles. And then we cannot solve our task, Colonel Mads Rahbek explains.
After consulting with the Armed Forces, it was he who made the decision on Friday to close the gates.
We are going to death in the family so that someone is allowed to go out and go home. And if anyone is going out, then we need to consider it very carefully before anyone is allowed to come in again, he states.
DR News has spoken to one of the guards who was told Friday that they should stay inside the fence.
Of course, it is really thrilling that we cannot come home and visit the family, says Andersen.
But it is also nice to feel that we can not do without, so it is necessary to shield ourselves. Probably most of us mothers who suffer deprivation, it sounds with a smile.
Source: www.dr.dk
