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Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Monday

Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Monday
Sunny weather is expected all week this week. Photo: Niclas Jessen/Visit Denmark

Denmark’s former PM names new party Moderaterne 

Lars Løkke Rasmussen, Denmark’s former prime minister, announced on Saturday that his new centre party would be called Moderaterne, the same name as the leading centre-right party in Sweden. 

In a speech held to mark Denmark’s Constitution Day on Saturday, Rasmussen said the new party would attempt to unite Danes with a variety of different backgrounds and political viewpoints. 

“Some prefer mackerel, and others prefer salmon. Some have long Danish pedigrees, others have only recently chosen to live in Denmark,” he said.

What they all have in common, he said, is their love for Denmark, which is “among the best countries in the world”. 

“How do we drive it forward? We are trying to find an answer to that. How do we pass it on to our children in better condition than we received it?” 

Rasmussen said the party would not launch fully until after November’s local elections, but was ready to contest a parliamentary election if the ruling Social Democrats decided to call an early vote, something he said he did not expect to happen. 

Sweden’s state epidemiologist warns Swedes to be careful in “high-infection” Denmark 

After the per capita number of new coronavirus infections in Denmark in recent days overtaking that of Sweden, Sweden’s state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell has advised Swedes visiting their Nordic neighbour to be careful to maintain social distancing. 

“You need to keep [the infection rate] in mind if you go there, so that you really take with you the advice you have in Sweden to keep your distance, not stay with lots of other people, and not have the close contact that involves a risk,” he told the Expressen newspaper. 

He said Denmark’s higher infection rate was an obvious consequence of the country’s more rapid lifting of restrictions. 

“They chose to open up society relatively quickly even though they knew that there was a certain risk that the spread of infection would increase,” he said. “Because they had vaccinated the elderly and did not see that it would be that dangerous with a certain increased spread of infection.” 

Nils Strandberg Pedersen, former director for Denmark’s SSI infectious diseases agency called Tegnell’s comments “comical”. 

“It’s comical. It’s Swedish spin,” he told the BT tabloid. “Denmark has registered more infections because we test so much more than the Swedes. It’s not the same as having more people infected in the population.” 

More immigrants to Denmark are getting an education 

The education gap between first and second-generation immigrants to Denmark and people of Danish origin has fallen over the last decade, according to a story published in Politiken based on new figures from Denmark’s immigration ministry. 

An impressive 72 percent of 20 to 24-year-old first and second-generation female immigrants now completing further education of university education, compared to 58 percent in 2010.

Denmark records further 853 cases of coronavirus 

A further 853 people were diagnosed with coronavirus in the 24 hours running up to 2pm on Sunday, a rise on Saturday when 592 cases were detected, but still within the range of 600 to 1350 a day within which Denmark has been fluctuating since the start of May. 

Thorkild Sørensen, professor emeritus of epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen, told Ritzau that the sunny summer weather was allowing people to meet outside, and vaccinations were having an impact, allowing Denmark to open up without a surge in infections.

On Sunday morning, 138 people were being treated for coronavirus in Denmark’s hospitals, up four from Saturday, or whom 29 were in intensive care. 

Some 40.4 percent of the population has now received at least one dose of vaccine and 23.2 percent have received both doses. 

Sunny summer weather expected in Denmark this week 

Denmark is expected to have warm sunny weather with temperatures of 18C to 23C, with blue skies and little rain, Danish Meteorological Institute said on Monday. 

“This week looks really nice and summery, and it will be mostly dry weather most of the time,” Anja Bodholdt, a meteorologist at the institute told Ritzau on Monday.  “The only exception is Monday, when people in Jutland and Funen might wake up to scattered showers that move east during the day.” 

Danish property market show signs of cooling 

The number of houses being put on the market fell again in May, according to new figures released from Home, one of Denmark’s largest online estate agents. 

According to Bjørn Tangaa Sillemann, an analyst at Danske Bank, the figures suggest that momentum is seeping out of what has been a “scorching” market over the last year, although he said it was unlikely prices would actually fall. 
 
“Although demand seems to be declining, it is still high, and when interest declines, it can also make it less attractive to put your home up for sale than it has been recently,” he said.
 
At Home, 5.1 percent fewer houses were put on the market in May, while the number of apartments put on the market fell 9 percent, and the number of sales fell by 2.1 and 5.7 percent respectively.
 

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NEWS ROUNDUP

Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Thursday

Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

Today in Denmark: A round-up of the latest news on Thursday
Nanna Skov Høpfner celebrates after having her sentence reduced from two years to 60 days. Photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen/Ritzau Scanpix

Denmark’s parties agree to phase out face masks from Monday

Denmark’s government has struck a deal with all but one of the parliament’s parties to phase out the use of face masks, with the requirement to wear a face mask from Monday removed for all areas apart from when standing in public transport. The requirement to wear a face mask will be removed completely on September 1st. 

The coronavirus pass or coronapas will also begin to be phased out on Monday, when those visiting public libraries and participating in activities run by clubs and voluntary organisations will no longer need to show a pass. 

From August 1st, the coronapas will no longer be needed in theaters, concert venues, indoor sports activities, and a wide range of other venues, and from September 1st, you will no longer need to show one in restaurants, the hairdresser or the gym, and on October 1st the pass will be phased out completely. 

“It is a marked opening of Danish society,” Magnus Heunicke, Denmark’s health minister said when the agreement was announced just before 4am on Thursday morning. 

The agreement also extends how long a negative PCR test provides a valid coronavirus pass or coronapas to 96 hours. 

Two Viking relatives reunited in Denmark after 1,000 years

Separated for 1,000 years, two Viking warriors from the same family were reunited on Wednesday at Denmark’s National
Museum, as DNA analysis helps shed light on the Vikings’ movements across Europe.

One of the Vikings died in England in his 20s in the 11th century, from injuries to the head. He was buried in a mass grave in Oxford.

The other died in Denmark in his 50s, his skeleton bearing traces of blows that suggest he took part in battles.

DNA mapping of skeletons from the Viking era — from the eighth to the 12th century — enabled archaeologists to determine by chance that the two were related. 

Woman from Men In Black demo has sentence cut from two years to 60 days

Nanna Skov Høpfner, who was sentenced to two years in prison for a speech when she called for anti-lockdown protestors to “smash the city in a non-violent way”, has had her sentence cut to 60 days by Denmark’s Eastern High Court. 

Nanna Skov Høpfner was the first to be convicted in the district court under the special corona clause 81d, which applies double punishments for any offence which “has a background in or connection with the covid-19 epidemic in Denmark”. 

The High Court said that the clause should not apply to offences committed at a demo. 

Number of coronavirus patients in Denmark falls by two

The number of patients being treated in Danish hospitals for coronavirus has fallen by 2 to 122, while 904 new coronavirus infections were registered in the 24 hours leading up to 2pm on Wednesday, Denmark’s infectious diseases agency Statens Serum Institut (SSI) has reported. 

According to the institute, a technical error meant that the number of new infections was based on more tests than usual, making the number of new infections is an overestimate. 

According to Magnus Heunicke, Denmark’s health minister, the current reproduction number in Denmark is 0.8, indicating a falling level of infection with each ten infected people only going on to infect eight others. 

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