Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) meets with the parties on a video link tonight to discuss a further reopening.
Easter has not only been filled with sunshine and holidays for most people. It has also delivered positive news for the government.
Figures for the number of infected, hospitalized and critically ill continue to go in the right direction – and this is now prompting Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen (S) to announce a faster pace for the reopening of society – although she is not ready to say what can open.
Those numbers are better than we had dared to hope. They are also better than we expected, says Mette Frederiksen.
The contract we Danes have succeeded in signing with each other, it does not seem to have benefited from it alone. It also seems to have worked, she says.
Therefore, the government will now open up more than was otherwise announced at a press conference last week, where daycare, crèches, kindergartens and the schooling for the youngest children were given an opening date – tomorrow.
It also means that we can do more in Phase 1 of the reopening of Denmark a little bit larger than expected, says Mette Frederiksen, who calls the trend in the number of infected to “surprising”.
According to Kåre Mølbak, who is the technical director of the Norwegian State Serum Institute’s Infectious Readiness, it is possible to carry out further opening measures, while the number of infected and hospitalized is still expected to decline. It shows the mathematical models implemented by the Serum Institute at Easter.
Now party leaders need to go to the negotiating table
So far, it is not clear what can be further opened up. It will depend on a negotiation with the parties in the Parliament – and therefore the government is not specific about what can reopen in the past.
Mette Frederiksen (S) meets with the party leaders on video link tonight between 18 and 19 to discuss how phase 1 can be expanded. At the press conference, she emphasized that this will be done with a focus on the Danish economy.
Our priority is that these are jobs that we continue to focus on, she says.
The Prime Minister emphasizes that the government’s priority is to open the places where it is partly sound in terms of health and makes sense in relation to the economy of Denmark.
Last week, for example, hairdressers and cafes, for example, could open at the earliest in the next phase, which the government plans to enter after May 10.
However, Mette Frederiksen denies that the government has overreacted by shutting everything down.
No, we haven’t overreacted. I mean, we’ve done the opposite. We have shown action and we have done it at the right time. We are one of the countries in the world that is nowhere near experiencing the serious things you see in other countries.
“In doing so, we may have saved human lives and avoided some of the very serious situations we see in other countries,” says Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen.
Hospitals also open for treatment
Last night, the government agreed with the Danish Regions, the National Association of Local Authorities (KL) and the Practitioners (PLO) to partially reopen the health care system.
The agreement means that the health care system must begin to open up to all the treatments that are exposed. Which treatments are first in line is so far unclear.
The government was otherwise trying to make a deal with a broad majority in the Danish Parliament on how to reopen parts of the health service. However, the talks broke down last night.
Over Easter, the number of inmates has continued to decline. Yesterday, 380 people were admitted to a hospital infected with coronavirus against 388 people on Easter Sunday.
SOURCE: www.dr.dk
