Data from the State Serum Institute (SSI) shows and additional 46,831 confirmed Covid-19 cases on Friday, around 6,000 more than the total on Thursday, which was also a record.

268,092 PCR tests were taken, meaning around one in six tests returned a positive result. That is a similar proportion to that seen in recent days.

Fewer people are in hospital with Covid-19 compared to Thursday, with that figure falling by 12 to 813. The number includes people who have tested positive to Covid-19 but are in hospital for other reasons.

The number for inpatients with Covid-19 is lower than the highest figure during the 2020/21 winter, which was 964 on January 4th last year. However daily infections last winter did not exceed 5,000 in a day at any time and only exceeded 4,000 on a handful of occasions.

An SSI-led study on Thursday found that the risk of hospitalisation is around 36 percent lower with the Omicron variant of Covid-19 compared to the Delta variant, the agency said on Thursday. It also concluded that vaccination against Covid-19 can prevent three out of four hospital admissions, both Omicron and Delta-related.

The study is in pre-print form, meaning it is yet to undergo peer review.

“It’s a positive thing that most people don’t get so ill. But we should remember that there’s a group of particularly vulnerable people who cannot protect themselves against these dramatic infection numbers and will still get seriously ill,” Åse Bengård Andersen, senior consultant in infectious diseases at Copenhagen’s Rigshospitalet, told news wire Ritzau.

Andersen also said Denmark’s high vaccination rates had contributed to a lower hospitalisation number.

The consultant told Ritzau that a continuation of the current requirements to wear face masks in settings including public transport and in stores would be reasonable given the risk to vulnerable groups of the uncontrolled infection rate.

The government has promised to present its plan next week for how restrictions will continue into February.

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