The Danes celebrated their Freedom Day. For them, the pandemic seems to be over. However, more corona deaths are now being reported every day.
Copenhagen – Is the time of Corona really over? The coronavirus pandemic has taken a lot out of people. Calls for an end to measures to curb the spread of the virus have recently become louder.
Denmark took the step that so many wished for on February 2nd and dropped the measures. But now the reports of daily new record numbers of deaths related to the corona virus are piling up. Has Denmark got bogged down?
Pandemic over for Denmark? The number of new infections is falling
“We say ‘goodbye’ to restrictions and ‘hello’ to the life we knew before Corona.” With these words Mette Frederiksen, Prime Minister of Denmark, proclaimed the so-called Freedom Day in Germany’s neighboring country. Some say that Denmark declared the corona pandemic * to be over, at least locally. This means: Masks* no longer have to be worn, vaccination certificates are no longer checked and other restrictions no longer exist.
What initially looked like a drop in the number of cases after Freedom Day in Denmark resulted in a brief spike. On February 13, the new infections reached a number of over 46,000 cases for the last time – after that a rapid decline began. According to ourworldindata , as of March 10, 17,000 new infections were reported over several days with slight fluctuations, far fewer than when all measures were dropped.
Denmark without measures: case numbers are falling – deaths are increasing
The reason why Denmark’s decision is now being criticized is not the daily number of new infections. It is the rapidly increasing number of deaths in connection with the corona virus. On March 9, the number of deaths related to Covid in 24 hours reached a record 60 cases. A record value that the reports have been steadily approaching since November of last year.
But how does that fit together? The drop in the daily number of new infections has been going on for almost a month now and yet the number of deaths continues to rise. According to a report by Focus , the Danish health authority explained the frightening number development with a rather unspectacular circumstance.
The corona mutation Omicron has changed the spread of the virus and also mortality. Therefore, there would be more cases in which people colloquially die only “with” Corona and not causally “from” Corona. All cases that had a positive PCR test result during the 30 days before the date of death are counted in the death figures. In combination with the omicron variant, a higher proportion of deaths in which the corona infection was not the primary cause of death can be assumed. (mda) *Merkur.de and tz.de are offered by IPPEN.MEDIA.
List of rubrics: © dpa/Steffen Trumpf
