Denmark announces 'contingency strategy' against COVID-19 after lifting restrictions

COPENHAGEN -- A Danish government-commissioned expert group released a report on Wednesday, advocating a contingency strategy for COVID-19 situation if the epidemic develops in a worrying direction.

Denmark has reclassified COVID-19 from "socially critical disease" to "generally dangerous disease," and almost all the restrictions were lifted on Sept. 10.

The report, entitled "An everyday life with increased preparedness," supports a rapid escalation of efforts in the event that the epidemic shifts to a more critical stage.

In addition, the expert group recommended that the long-term strategy against COVID-19 should balance between epidemic control, economy, well-being and public health "to avoid as many national shutdowns as possible".

"New and potentially more worrying virus variants may emerge, as well as the fact that COVID-19 in interaction with other respiratory infections may become a challenge to public health, especially in the coming winter," said the report.

The export group said that the delta variant has made it clear that "we will have to live with coronavirus in Denmark in the coming years."

There were reasons to worry "new variants can arise, most likely outside Denmark, therefore we must be prepared for both a forth and fifth wave," said group member Astrid Iversen, professor of virology at the University of Oxford.

In the past 24 hours, the Statens Serum Institute (SSI) registered 370 new COVID-19 infections and three deaths, bringing the national totals to 353,431 cases and 2,617 deaths.

The SSI reported that 75.7 percent of the Danish population, or 4,437,113 have started vaccination progress, and 73.6 percent of the population have been fully vaccinated.