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MASKS

Danish PM ‘ready to bring in more restrictions if needed’

Denmark's Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has said she is prepared to bring in still more restrictions if they are necessary to bring the level of coronavirus infections under control.

Published: 30 October 2020 09:45 CET
Danish PM 'ready to bring in more restrictions if needed'
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen takes part in a virtual EU meeting. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix
“We believe the restrictions announced on Friday, and introduced on Monday and Thursday, are sufficient to deal with the situation we are in. If that turns out not to be the case, the government is ready to introduce more restrictions,” she told the broadcaster TV2. 
 
Denmark's new extended face mask requirement came into force on Thursday morning, as did a ban on shops selling alcohol after 10pm. On Monday, the maximum number of people Danes can meet with was reduced to ten. 
 
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There are early signs that the number of people infected in Denmark is starting to respond to tighter restrictions, with the number of people testing positive  falling to 847 on Tuesday and 157 on Wednesday after peaking at a record-high 1,000 on Monday. 
 
 
But Frederiksen said that the experience of other countries in Europe showed how quickly the situation can change for the worse. 
 
“We are not standing on the edge of a second wave, we are in the middle of it and the situation is serious,” she said. “Just now the situation in Denmark is better than in many other European countries, but we can see when we look around how quickly it can go. It can be a question of a few days, whether you're in a leading position or right down at the bottom.” 
 
She had recently sat in a virtual meeting with other European Union leaders where it was clear that several countries were losing control of the infection. 
 
“I can also see that in Europe, that if you move too late, as some countries did in the spring, you will get many more infections and potentially many more deaths and that is something we do not want to see in Denmark.” 
 
She underlined once again how serious a threat coronavirus is. 
 

“I hear people say 'this is not a dangerous diseases, that it's only a type of influenza, that the government is overreacting, that this or that restriction is unnecessary, why don't we wait until we have more deaths and more infected'. This is a way of thinking that I don't think holds up against reality.” 
 
 
 

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HEALTH

Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

As Italy’s new school year began, masks and hand sanitiser were distributed in schools and staff were asked to prevent gatherings to help stem an increase in Covid infections.

Published: 11 September 2023 12:48 CEST
Italy’s schools warned to ‘avoid gatherings’ as Covid cases rise

Pupils returned to school in many parts of Italy on Monday and authorities said they were distributing masks and hand sanitiser amid a post-summer increase in the number of recorded cases of Covid–19.

“The advice coming from principals, teachers and janitors is to avoid gatherings of students, especially in these first days of school,” Mario Rusconi, head of Italy’s Principals’ Association, told Rai news on Monday.

He added that local authorities in many areas were distributing masks and hand sanitizer to schools who had requested them.

“The use of personal protective equipment is recommended for teachers and students who are vulnerable,” he said, confirming that “use is not mandatory.”

A previous requirement for students to wear masks in the classroom was scrapped at the beginning of the last academic year.

Walter Ricciardi, former president of the Higher Health Institute (ISS), told Italy’s La Stampa newspaper on Monday that the return to school brings the risk of increased Covid infections.

Ricciardi described the health ministry’s current guidelines for schools as “insufficient” and said they were “based on politics rather than scientific criteria.”

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Recorded cases of Covid have increased in most Italian regions over the past three weeks, along with rates of hospitalisation and admittance to intensive care, as much of the country returns to school and work following the summer holidays.

Altogether, Italy recorded 21,309 new cases in the last week, an increase of 44 percent compared to the 14,863 seen the week before.

While the World Health Organisation said in May that Covid was no longer a “global health emergency,” and doctors say currently circulating strains of the virus in Italy are not a cause for alarm, there are concerns about the impact on elderly and clinically vulnerable people with Italy’s autumn Covid booster campaign yet to begin.

“We have new variants that we are monitoring but none seem more worrying than usual,” stated Fabrizio Maggi, director of the Virology and Biosafety Laboratories Unit of the Lazzaro Spallanzani Institute for Infectious Diseases in Rome

He said “vaccination coverage and hybrid immunity can only translate into a milder disease in young and healthy people,” but added that “vaccinating the elderly and vulnerable continues to be important.”

Updated vaccines protecting against both flu and Covid are expected to arrive in Italy at the beginning of October, and the vaccination campaign will begin at the end of October, Rai reported.

Amid the increase in new cases, Italy’s health ministry last week issued a circular mandating Covid testing on arrival at hospital for patients with symptoms.

Find more information about Italy’s current Covid-19 situation and vaccination campaign on the Italian health ministry’s website (available in English).

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