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Denmark bans flights from Dubai over suspicious Covid-19 tests

Denmark has imposed a ban on incoming flights from the United Arab Emirates due to suspicions that Covid-19 testing in Dubai may be unreliable.

Published: 22 January 2021 11:09 CET
Denmark bans flights from Dubai over suspicious Covid-19 tests
File photo: Karim Sahib/AFP/Ritzau Scanpix

The ban will be effective for an initial for an initial five days from January 22nd, the transport ministry said in a statement.

The decision is related to suspicions regarding “irregularities with tests in Dubai,” the ministry said.

Flights would therefore be banned for five days “until it has been possible to investigate this issue to the bottom and ensure that the required negative tests are actual negative tests which have been taken properly,” transport minister Benny Engelbrecht said in the statement.

“We have previously seen mutations come in via Dubai and we cannot ignore a suspicion like this,” the minister also said, referencing a previous detection in Denmark of a mutation first reported in South Africa. The person in whom the mutation was detected had travelled to Denmark via Dubai.

Under current rules, everyone travelling to Denmark by air must provide a negative Covid-19 test no more than 24 hours old when boarding flights.

READ ALSO: These are Denmark's entry rules for negative Covid-19 tests

A report made to the foreign ministry resulted in the decision to implement the ban, the transport ministry said in the statement.

Engelbrecht elaborated on the mention of a whistleblower in comments to national broadcaster DR.

“There was a specific and serious report filed by a citizen in relation to how tests are conducted at entrances in Dubai and we must therefore ensure there are no problems with this,” he said.

“It is no use us having Danes or others who fly from Dubai who might be positive or infected with Covid-19 or maybe a mutation like the South African one,” he continued.

Danish authorities needed to ensure tests were not carried out “sloppily or intentionally incorrectly,” Engelbrecht said.

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COVID-19

Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

Sweden's Public Health Agency is recommending that those above the age of 80 should receive two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine a year, once in the spring and once in the autumn, as it shifts towards a longer-term strategy for the virus.

Published: 23 December 2022 10:53 CET
Public Health Agency recommends two Covid doses next year for elderly

In a new recommendation, the agency said that those living in elderly care centres, and those above the age of 80 should from March 1st receive two vaccinations a year, with a six month gap between doses. 

“Elderly people develop a somewhat worse immune defence after vaccination and immunity wanes faster than among young and healthy people,” the agency said. “That means that elderly people have a greater need of booster doses than younger ones. The Swedish Public Health Agency considers, based on the current knowledge, that it will be important even going into the future to have booster doses for the elderly and people in risk groups.” 

READ ALSO: 

People between the ages of 65 and 79 years old and young people with risk factors, such as obesity, diabetes, poor kidney function or high blood pressure, are recommended to take one additional dose per year.

The new vaccination recommendation, which will start to apply from March 1st next year, is only for 2023, Johanna Rubin, the investigator in the agency’s vaccination programme unit, explained. 

She said too much was still unclear about how long protection from vaccination lasted to institute a permanent programme.

“This recommendation applies to 2023. There is not really an abundance of data on how long protection lasts after a booster dose, of course, but this is what we can say for now,” she told the TT newswire. 

It was likely, however, that elderly people would end up being given an annual dose to protect them from any new variants, as has long been the case with influenza.

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