Denmark has become the first country to remove all domestic COVID-restrictions, allowing citizens to resume their usual life. But, at the moment, I’m not certain that what works for Denmark will work for the rest of us.
After speaking with Danish health minister Magnus Heunicke and following Norway’s and other European countries’ decisions to begin removing their own limits, I came to that conclusion. At least five U.S. states — New York, New Jersey, Oregon, Connecticut, and Delaware — have declared in recent days that they will repeal statewide mask laws, amid a broader discussion over whether all COVID-19 restrictions should be lifted.
According to the University of Oxford’s Our World in Data pandemic tracker, Denmark made its choice on Feb. 1 while COVID-19 infection rates were still rising and the country had one of the highest COVID-19 contagion rates in the world.
However, Health Minister Heunicke informed me that the increase in contagions did not prevent the government from relaxing virus limitations because the country’s primary purpose — protecting the elderly — had been met. The virus is no longer a “major threat” because practically all persons 65 and older are immunised, and the omicron form is less lethal than the previous one, he said.
“If you look at people over the age of 65 in Denmark, 94 percent of them have had three shots,” Heunicke said. “So that’s really essential, and it’s a big part of why we can do this at this early point in Denmark.”
In the general population, 80 percent of Danes have had two shots, and 60 percent have received three shots. “Our third shot campaign has particularly targeted those vulnerable groups that we know are in danger of a severe sickness,” Heunicke explained.
Denmark currently only asks foreign visitors to present proof of immunisation while entering the country. However, once you’ve entered, all limitations are lifted, he says.
The United States and the majority of Latin American countries lag considerably behind Denmark in terms of vaccinating their citizens.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, only 44 percent of Americans 65 and older have received a booster or additional primary dose of COVID-19 vaccination.
While that figure has climbed slightly thereafter, it is still significantly lower than Denmark’s immunisation rate for the same demographic.
Lifting COVID-19 limits would be considerably more risky in Latin America, where vaccination rates in most nations are lower than in the United States.
“We have to keep in mind that Europe is one or two months ahead of us,” said Jarbas Barbosa, a top Pan-American Health Organization official. “The omicron variety appeared in Europe much before it appeared in Latin America.”
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