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COVID-19 RULES

Danish government confirms plan to extend coronapas rules to workplaces

The government wants to extend current coronapas (Covid-19 health pass) rules to encompass public sector workplaces.

Published: 19 November 2021 16:11 CET
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the government intends to introduce the requirement for a valid coronapas at public workplacess
Danish Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the government intends to introduce the requirement for a valid coronapas at public workplaces. Photo: Nils Meilvang/Ritzau Scanpix

At a briefing on Friday, Health Minister Magnus Heunicke said the government intends to introduce the requirement for a valid coronapas at public workplaces, extending current rules for the documentation at bars, restaurants and events.

For the extended rules to take effect, parliament must first vote through a bill which was tabled by the government this week.

Additionally, the minister wants the government’s advisory Epidemic Commission to look at the possibility of requiring the coronapas in a broader range of circumstances than is currently the case.

Heunicke also said he wants the Commission to consider whether the period for which a negative Covid-19 test can provide for a valid coronapas can be reduced.

Currently, unvaccinated people can hold a valid coronapas for 96 hours through a negative PCR test, or 72 hours with a rapid antigen test.

“That’s a long time and we know with the Delta variant that it can pass the infection on (sooner),” the minister said.

An agreement between the government and labour organisations last week paved the way for the bill, tabled on Thursday, which will allow private companies to demand their staff show a valid coronapas.

Should it be passed, the government will apply it at public sector workplaces.

READ ALSO: Covid-19: Infections at Danish schools reach record level

Member comments

  1. From the first country to completely remove covid measures, to this, in a period of weeks. What to say, one of the two decisions had to be kind of wrong.

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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.”

READ ALSO:

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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